Description

DARTINGTON STAPLE SX7861 - SX7961 Staple Cottage 13/154

GV II

Cottage. Circa early C16, reduced and remodelled in C17, probably divided into 2 cottages in C19 and reunited in C20. Local limestone rubble; slate hung right-hand (north east) end. Grouted scantle slate roof with gabled ends and early crested ridge tiles; the rear slope has large graded slates. Rendered chimney stacks slightly projecting from each gable end with tapered tops and slate weathering. Plan: 4¼ bays of an open hall house that was originally longer and probably divided by low screens. it seems likely that the house originally continued to the left because the left-hand roof bay is very narrow and may be only part of a full bay. The house might have also extended further to the right. The ground in front and to the left falls away, so the left end is likely to have been the lower end of the house. In the C17 it was reduced and floors inserted to form a 2 storey 2-room-plan cottage with approximately equal size rooms heated from gable end stacks; the left-hand room the kitchen with an oven to the left of the stack. The central entrance doorway gives direct entry into the left-hand room, but it may formerly have given access to a cross-passage leading to the central newel stairs at the back which now rises from the left-hand room behind the partition between the 2 rooms. if there were originally a cross-passage the partition on the left side has been removed probably in the c19 when the house seems to have been divided into 2 cottages; the right-hand cottage had a doorway inserted immediately to the right of centre giving direct entry into the right-hand room. In the C20 the right-hand doorway was blocked and cottages reunited into one house. A curious feature of the plan is the sprayed front left-hand corner which corresponds with the splayed corner of the adjacent cottage 'Peters' which was built in the C17, probably when the left end of the house was demolished; the 2 splayed corners provide a passageway between the 2 buildings. Exterior: 2 storeys. Nearly symmetrical 3-window range. First floor 3 small windows, the centre and left have C18 2-light casements with leaded panes and shaped latch plates, the right-hand has C19 2-light casement inserted into the old frame. The ground floor windows right and left are in enlarged openings with segmental brick arches and later C19 or early C20 4-pane sashes. Doorway to left of centre has C20 glazed door and late C19 or early C 20 scantle slated canopy on large wooden braces. The doorway to right of centre is blocked. At the centre of the back a rectangular projecting stair turret over which the main roof is carried down; the stair turret has a rectangular single light window. To the right of the stair turret a C20 shallow horizontal window. Interior: the gable end fireplace in the left-hand room has a brick arch in place of a lintel, and a corbelled stone oven in the left-hand side. The left-hand room has a massive square-section cross-beam, the joists on one side have been replaced and on the other side hidden by a plaster ceiling. The partition on the right side of the former passage is plastered over but the very large square section head-beam is exposed. The large chamfered cross-beam in the right-hand room is unstopped unless the steps are buried in the wall plaster or have been hacked off; the joists are concealed. The fireplace in the gable end of the right-hand room has a renewed lintel. Newel stairs rise from the left-hand room behind the partition between the 2 rooms, the stone steps have been replaced by wooden steps. On the first floor the left-hand room has a partly blocked fireplace in the gable end. Roof: all 4 trusses are entirely smoke-blackened, only the second from the right has curved feet; the others are straight and seem to rest on the wall plate unless they are jointed to short wall posts which are concealed. The trusses have mortice apexes and mortices for the collars which have been replaced with later dovetail lap-jointed collar. There are 4 tiers of mortices for threaded purlins very closely spaced but only some of the purlins survive; the diagonal ridge-piece is also threaded. The rafters have been replaced. The truss second the left is closed by a later plastered stud partition.

Listing NGR: SX7897061871

External Links

• Wikidata Q26515617

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Recommended Books

• 
  Derbyshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Period property manual, victorian house manual 2 books collection set by ian rock
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  Listed Buildings, Conservation Areas and Monuments
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  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
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  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)