Description

SY 18 NE BRANSCOMBE STREET (north side)

7/55 Margells - 22.2.55 GV II*

House, once a parlour wing of a larger house. Late C16, carefully restored circa 1975 by the Landmark Trust. Exposed local stone rubble with Beerstone ashlar dressings; Beerstone ashlar stack and chimneyshaft extended with C20 brick; thatch roof. Plan: 2-room plan house with central through passage. It is built on a south-west north-east axis gable-end onto the lane. The former principal parlour at the front has a projecting lateral stack with projecting stair turret alongside on the outer (south-east) end. The rear room has a projecting gable-end stack. The quality of the rooms here suggests that this is only the parlour wing of a larger house. The rest of the house is thought to have been converted to Shute Cottage, Fern Cottage and Wayside Cottage (q.v.) adjoining at right angles to north-west of the rear room. There is in fact a small lobby belonging to Margells intruding into this cottage block. 2 storeys. Exterior: all the windows are C20 casements with glazing bars except for an original window at first floor level to rear; it is a Beerstone 2-light window with ovolo-moulded mullion and hoodmould. In the front end there is a single window each floor. On the inner (north-west) side there is a-single window above the passage doorway which contains a C19 plank door. To right of the window, under the eaves a short cruck post is exposed standing on an oak plate. On the outer (south-east) side the parlour stack has weathered offsets and the stair has a tiny window. To right the passage doorway contains a C19 door and the window to right of it has an original Beerstone hoodmould. The roof is gable-ended. Good interior: all the carpentry detail is original and it has been expertly restored. Each side of the passage is lined with oak plank-and-muntin screens, the muntins chamfered with diagonal cut stops. Each one contains a Tudor arch doorway although the head of the parlour doorway has been restored. The screen headbeams are independent and do not align with the first floor partitions. The rear room has a 4-panel ceiling of moulded intersecting beams. The front room has a higher quality 16-panel intersecting beam ceiling also of moulded intersecting beams. Here the panels are not plastered and the sets of 3 plain joists are set at right angles to those in the adjoining panels. Both ground floor fireplaces are surprisingly modest; stone rubble with plain chamfered oak lintels. The newel staircase has been rebuilt. There are 3 unheated first floor bedchambers of approximately the same size. They are divided by 2 closed trusses filled with small-panelled framing nogged with plaster. The rear one contains a Tudor arch doorway and the front one contains a round-headed doorway (maybe converted from a Tudor arch). A corridor between these doorways from the head of the stairs is a low partition of similar small panel framing and it contains another Tudor arch. All 3 rooms are open to the roof which is carried on clean side-pegged jointed crucks. The front chamber contains a fragment of a rich mural painting; it is probably original. The dominant colours are red and black and it features foliage (although it does contain a human head) and a frieze. The standard of craftsmanship in the renovation of this house is exemplary and has left one of the best late C16 interiors in Devon. The house also forms part of an exceptionally good group of mostly thatched traditional buildings which make up the attractive hamlet of Street. Source: a measured ground plan with manuscript notes by N W Alcock in N M R. Alcock thought the building earlier. Also there is a folder containing a collection of reports on the building at Margells.

Listing NGR: SY1885288845

External Links

• Wikidata Q17546915

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Recommended Books

• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 4: North: North v. 4 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)
• 
  For the Record