Description

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 18 May 2026 to update the Name and Address and reformat the text to current standards

ST 11 SW
10/66

CULMSTOCK
Culmstock
THE STRAND

(Formerly listed as Culm Cottage and The Bridge

GV
II

Two adjoining cottages, one including a shop; formerly a single house. Late C16 -early C17, maybe earlier in parts, some C17 improvements, thoroughly refurbished in mid C19 when original house was divided into the present two cottages. Plastered cob on stone rubble footings; stone rubble or cob stacks topped with C19 and C20 brick; thatch roof and slate to Culm Cottage extension.

Plan and development: Two adjoining cottages in an L-plan building. The main block faces north-east. It is parallel to the street but set back from it. A block projects forward at right angles to the street front at the right (north-west) end. CulLm Cottage occupies the centre and left end of the main block. It has a two-room plan with central entrance hall containing the stair. The small unheated inner left room is now used as the kitchen. The larger right room has an axial stack backing onto the adjoining cottage. There is a one-room plan mid C19 extension to rear of the left end with an outer lateral stack. Bridge Farm is a three-room plan cottage. It occupies the right end room of the main block which has an end stack and the two unheated rooms of the front block. The entrance to this cottage is through the shop in the front room of the front block. Only Culm Cottage was available for inspection at the time of this survey but it seems clear that the main block was originally built as a three-room-and-through-passage plan house. The larger heated room in Culm Cottage seems to be the hall and was probably open to the roof in the late C16 -early C17. It was floored over in the early or mid C17. The entrance hall and stairs were inserted in the mid C19 into the former inner room. Thus, the main block room of Bridge Farm occupies the site of the former passage and service end room. The date of the front block is not known but it is thought to be earlier than the mid C19. Both cottages are two storeys.

Exterior: main block has an irregular three-window front of mid C19 casements with glazing bars and margin panes; the first floor windows have flat thatch eyebrows over. The left two-window section (belonging to Culm Cottage) is symmetrical about the central doorway which contains a C19 panelled door behind a C20 gabled porch. The main block roof is half-hipped to left and hipped to right. The rear extension of Culm Cottage contains horned four-pane sashes. The front block contains C19 and early C20 casements with glazing bars including the front end shop window. The front block roof is half-hipped at the front.

Interior: only Culm Cottage was available for inspection at the time of this survey. Although it appears to be largely the result of the mid C19 refurbishment the original layout is preserved and late C16 - early C17 carpentry detail is suspected behind the C19 plaster. In the former hall the fireplace is blocked. Both rooms have unstopped beams with soffit-chamfers, an axial one across the left room and entrance hall and crossbeam in the former hall. The roof over this part is carried on two side-pegged jointed cruck trusses with cambered collars. The roofspace is inaccessible and therefore it was not possible to ascertain whether or not the roof timbers were smoke-blackened from an open hearth fire and therefore late medieval in date. The main block part of Bridge Farm probably contains similar carpentry detail.

This pair of cottages form part of an attractive group of listed buildings in the vicinity of Culmstock Bridge (q.v). Furthermore these have had no modernisations since the mid C19.


Listing NGR: ST1009513706

External Links

• Wikidata Q26400304

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

• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  England's Post-War Listed Buildings
• 
  Drawing up a Local Listed Building Consent Order: Historic England Advice Note 6
• 
  Period property manual, victorian house manual 2 books collection set by ian rock
• 
  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)