Description

MANATON SX 78 SW 4/42 North Heathercombe - - II

House, formerly farmhouse. Probably late C15 with subsequent alterations in C16, C17 and C18 and modernised late C20. Rendered granite rubble walls. Granite rubble chimney stacks with drip-courses and tapering granite caps. Thatched roof to right and hipped to left. Slate roof to outshut at rear. Original plan three room and through passage with open hall and possibly low partitions. Re-modelled in second half of C16 when a closed truss was inserted between the hall and inner room, inner room possibly ceiled at this stage and newel staircase added. Hall fireplace and ceiling inserted probably early C17. Also at this stage it is likely that the lower end was re-roofed and the porch added to the front of the passage. In C18 rear outshut added. 2 storeys. Asymmetrical 3-window front of C20 2, 3 and 4-light wooden casement windows with glazing bars in small openings. Through passage doorway to right of centre with C17 studded plank door in contemporary rendered stone porch with seats either side and thatched gable roof. Reputedly the porch once had a granite arched doorway. Granite rubble outshut at rear with C20 casements and plank door to left of centre. Granite rubble garden walls to front of house with dressed quoins and flat coping stones with slight return towards the house porch. Left hand wall curves back to house and at upper end incorporates 6 bee-boles with corbelled roofs. To right of door the wall extends approximately 13 metres northwards with 1 break. The wall ranges from 1 to 2 metres high. Interior: although recent modernisation has considerably altered the plan of the house a number of good early features survive. 2 smoke-blackened roof trusses of differing types remain. Over the hall is the remains of an original truss of very large scantling with curved feet and a morticed collar above which the truss is cut off. There is a mortice in the top of the principal where it is cut off. Only a small section of collar survives. (This truss is similar in form to the roof in Penellick Farmhouse, Pelynt, Cornwall). The other early truss is the closed truss at the higher end of the hall which is also smoke-blackened on the hall side. This consists of a blade morticed into a wall-post but without the typical curve of the usual jointed cruck. The joint is side-pegged on the hall side. There is a straight collar notched and halved onto the principal rafters. The purlins and ridge are threaded. Between these 2 roof trusses the purlins and rafters are also smoke-blackened. Over the lower end are plain C17 trusses. The ground floor partition between hall and inner room has been removed; on the rear wall of the hall, probably close to the position of the partition, a stone newel staircase rises leading to the chamber above the inner room. The hall fireplace is granite framed with a corbelled chamfered lintel. The corbel stones are curved with chamfered edge and the jambs are also chamfered with rough stops. The fireplace back adjoining the cross passage is constructed of granite ashlar with a coved cornice. The lower room has a heavy unchamfered cross beam and a 4 fielded panel door. Elsewhere in the house several C17 plank doors survive, studded with old strap hinges. Although considerably modernised this house preserves a very traditional appearance from the outside and internally contains several early features of particular interest because of relatively unusual construction such as the 2 early roof trusses and the corbelled fireplace.

Listing NGR: SX7185181066

External Links

• Wikidata Q26389521

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Recommended Books

• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  Dorset (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Care and Repair
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  Development and Design of Heritage Sensitive Sites: Strategies for Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)