Description

NORTH TAWTON BOUCHIERS HILL, North Tawton
SS 60 SE
6/91 Burton Hall Cottage
II

House, originally farmhouse. Probably early C16 with C17 modifications and C20
partial rebuilding. Rendered and plastered cob walls with some stone. Thatch roof
nipped to left half hipped to right end. Axial brick stack and projecting rendered
rubble or cob stack at right gable end with brick shaft.
Plan: 3-room and cross-passage plan, lower end to the right. It is likely that
originally the house had an open hall with central hearth but lack of access to the
roofspace makes this uncertain. It is clear however that a fairly high quality
modernisation took place in the late C16 to early C17. Probably this took place in
more than one stage with the hall remaining open when the lower and higher ends were
floored, and the room over the passage jettied into it. The insertion of the hall
ceiling and its stack, backing onto the passage, completed the modernisation. The
lower room gable end fireplace may be contemporary and a winder staircase was added
in a projection at its rear. In the circa mid C20 the front and end walls of the
inner room were rebuilt.
Exterior: 2 storeys. Asymmetrical 4-window front. C20 casements to first floor -
outer ones are 3-light, inner ones 2-light of which the right-hand one is inserted
into a C17 moulded wooden frame. On the ground floor are two C20 2-light casements
to left and centre and a small-paned 3-light casement to the right. C19 plank door
to right of centre behind wide open-fronted C20 timber porch with shallow-pitch
gabled roof. Rear elevation has shallow rectangular stair projection at left-hand
end with probably original wooden frame to single light window.
Interior: between the passage and the lower room is a plank and muntin screen whose
muntins are chamfered on the lower side and moulded on the passage side, with a
moulded head beam. At the rear of the lower room the winder stairs are preserved
with wooden treads on stone steps.
The hall fireplace (now blocked) has wooden lintel and granite jambs. Immediately
to the left of the fireplace, above the door from the passage, is a richly moulded
beam probably for a jetty. Heavy chamfered ceiling beam and exposed roughly
chamfered joists. The inner room has a heavy chamfered axial beam with ogee stops.
Roof: over the hall is 1 pair of side-pegged jointed crucks, over the lower end of
the passage is a closed truss with tie-beam. A C17 doorframe has been inserted into
it.

Listing NGR: SS6650502066

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26611912

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Shropshire)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1958)
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide