Description

OKEHAMPTON HAMLETS CHICHACOTT SX 69 NW

5/109 Lower Chichacott Cottage

GV II

House originally farmhouse. Early - mid C16 with C17 alterations, modernised in C20. Plastered stone rubble walls with some cob to the wall tops. Hipped reinforced plastic thatched style roof. Rendered stone rubble axial stack with dripstones and late C20 brick shaft at right-hand end. Plan: Longhouse derivative plan with shippon at the right end divided by a self- contained stone from the domestic end of the house which consists of a cross passage adjoining which is the hall to the left and a very narrow service room at the higher end. There is a shallow 2 storey hall projection at its higher end which is unlikely to be original. All the internal partitions in the building are solid walls. The house was originally open to the roof over the hall and may have been to the lower end but the lack of access to the roof space precludes evidence of smoke- blackening for an original open hearth. The relationship of the hall fireplace to ceiling suggests, however that the stack formerly heated an open hall and backed onto the passage projecting hall bay is likely to have been added when the hall was ceiled at this time to light the room above. Judging from its noticeably more regular shape the lower end is likely to have been rebuilt and quite possibly extended in the C18 or early C19. In the later C20 the shippon was converted to domestic use and doorways inserted to give internal access to the lower end. 2 storeys, and single storey to former shippon. Asymmetrical 3 window front, 6 windows to ground floor. Former shippon to the right has lower roof-line and the 2 storey gabled hall bay projects towards the left-hand end. Windows are all C20 1, 2 and 3 light casements mainly with glazing bars except for the 1st floor window to the projection which is a C19 3 light casement. The 1st floor right-hand opening was a loading hatch to the shippon loft. C20 plank door to left of centre under C20 gabled doorhood. Interior: 2 original roof trusses survive, one over the hall, close to its stack, and one over the stone. The former is a true cruck with threaded purlins and morticed cranked collar. It is stained dark but appears to have encrustation resembling sooting from an open hearth. The other truss is likely to have been identical but its front foot has been cut off and its collar removed. Over the shippon the trusses are much lighter and rougher and likely to be C19. The other original features are the doorway to the hall from the passage which has a wooden frame with shouldered cranked head (a form distinctive to this part of Devon) and the doorway to the inner room which has a shouldered segmental head and slightly bowed jambs. The different forms may represent the different status of these 2 rooms. The hall fireplace may be later and has a very high wooden lintel higher than the ceiling level, it has roughly dressed granite jambs and a stone ovenThe ceiling has one chamfered cross beam with draw stops. This house preserves a number of original features and despite recent alteration its interesting and slightly puzzling original plan form has not been obscured. It forms one of an unspoilt hamlet of early farmhouses. Source: Report by N. Alcock (interpretation slightly different).

Listing NGR: SX6027896539

External Links

• Wikidata Q26611796

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Recommended Books

• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects, Supplement 2014
• 
  Worcestershire Revised Edition (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)
• 
  Suffolk: West: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)