Description

DARTINGTON Little Westcombe SX76SE 1/98

II

House C16; eaves raised and reroofed and possibly floor inserted into hall in C17; divided into 3 cottages probably in C18 or Cl9 and recently restored and reunited into one house. Local stone rubble; roughcast rendered at front and ends. Asbestos slate roof with gabled right end and half-hipped left end. Stone rubble gable end stack to right with rendered shaft; Rendered front lateral stack and stone rubble rear lateral stack. Plan: 3 rooms and through passage plan house; the lowered end to left was originally unheated. The higher right end of the house appears to have been originally unheated. The higher right end of the house appears to have been extended to create a large inner room with a gable end stack. The hall may have been open to the roof and the front lateral stick built when the floor was inserted probably in C17. The evidence for an open hall is only the 2 rear stair turrets for access to the storeyed higher and lower ends and the mid-floor level front window of the hall which seems to have been partly blocked by the hall lateral stack and inserted floor. The C17 roof is entirely clean and may have been built when the hall floor was inserted and the eaves raised. Probably in the C18 and C19 the house was converted into 3 cottages and this is possibly when the inner room was extended to provide enough room for one cottage and when the rear lateral stack was built to heat the cottage at the lower end. At the rear of the hall there is a lean-to outshut of uncertain date which has been heightened in C20 probably quite recently when the 3 cottages were reunited into one house. Exterior: 2 storeys. Long asymmetrical 5/6 window range, lower end to left set back slightly. All C20 casements with leaded panes, those on first floor are relatively small, but ground floor openings have been enclosed. Large projecting lateral stack to right of centre with set-offs, weathering and tapered top. Small but tall single-light window to left of stack at mid floor level with slate dripstone, which may have been the hall window before the stack blocked most of it. Passage doorway to left of centre with C20 plank door and slated lean-to canopy. Rear elevation has slightly projecting stair turrets to right and left of centre with small single light windows, and lean-to between the turrets which has been heightened in C20. to left behind the higher end a C20 single storey outshut. To right a projecting rear lateral stack with set-offs, and a stove or privy on the right hand corner with a hipped scantle slate roof. Interior: front lateral hall fireplace with massive slate-on-edge lintel with chamfer, the stops covered by later strengthening of the jambs; oven to right with brick lining. Hall inner room partition replaced either late C20 timber frame partition; there may have been a timber frame partition above. C20 partitions between passages and hall and passage and lower room. Stone newel stairs rise from rear of hall originally to chamber over inner room, and also there was a newel stair rising from rear of passage to chamber over lower end the latter stairs have been removed and C20 straight stairs substituted Hall and inner room ceilings are plastered; the lower end room has later exposed joists. Roof: straight principal rafters with collars and threaded purlins.

Listing NGR: SX7642862306

External Links

• Wikidata Q26610575

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Recommended Books

• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  Period Property Manual (New Ed)
• 
  Sussex: West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Renovating Old Houses: Bringing New Life to Vintage Homes (For Pros By Pros)