Dadd'S Village Stores

Dadd's Village Stores, Blackmore

House, now shop and house, dating to around 1400 with alterations made in the 17th and 20th centuries. The building is timber-framed, plastered, and roofed with handmade red clay tiles.

The original structure comprised a 2-bay hall facing approximately south with an axial stack in the left bay, a 3-bay parlour/solar cross-wing to the right, and 2 bays of what was formerly a 3-bay service cross-wing to the left. Extensive 20th-century additions have been made to the rear.

Exterior: The building now stands 2 storeys, though the hall walls were originally only about 2.50 metres high and have been raised to full 2-storey height. This raising means a continuous roof now covers the incomplete left cross-wing, the raised hall, and overlays the ridge of the right cross-wing, creating the appearance of a T-plan. The ground floor contains a 20th-century casement window and a 20th-century projecting shop window. The first floor has three 20th-century sashes of 16 lights each. A 20th-century half-glazed door with a flat canopy on curved brackets is present. Gablet hips appear at the right end and at the rear end of the right cross-wing.

On the right elevation at first-floor level is a 17th-century 2-light window comprising one wrought-iron casement and one fixed light with leaded diamond panes of handmade glass, partly overlaid by a disused external stack. The ground floor has been extensively altered for shop use.

Interior: The studs are missing from the rear wall of the right bay of the hall and between the hall and parlour. Only 2 studs remain of the original partition between the middle and rear bay of the right cross-wing. All studs are missing from the left and rear walls of the rear bay of this cross-wing, though the main posts survive.

The central post at the right end of the hall retains one peg for a bench fixing, and the post to its rear preserves a stub of the former doorhead between the hall and parlour, together with the rebate and both pintle hinges for the door.

The hall contains a 17th-century inserted floor with a chamfered axial beam and plain joists of vertical section. The right cross-wing has chamfered binding beams and plain joists of horizontal section jointed with central tenons; at the rear end they join crudely into a substituted old oak beam, roughly chamfered on both sides, a 20th-century insertion. A blocked original stair trap exists in the rear bay. Both hearths of the axial stack are blocked and plastered over; the only visible brickwork, at the rear, dates to the 18th century.

In the left service cross-wing, the original partition between the middle and former rear bay remains, with one arched brace trenched into the rear of the studs. The original doorway with 4-centred head is mutilated. Two original service doorways with associated framing have been removed from their original positions at the left end of the hall and re-erected on either side of a 20th-century hearth against the left wall. These doors have chamfered jambs and 4-centred heads in excellent condition, though the whole assembly was re-pegged in the 20th century with projecting pegs. This section has been re-floored in the 20th century with plain vertical joists, machined.

On the first floor of the hall range, the original wallplates are visible about 0.40 metres above floor level, with about 1.50 metres of 17th-century framing above, featuring thin studs and primary straight bracing. Little framing is exposed at the left end, the former service cross-wing.

In the right parlour cross-wing, the original framing survives in exceptionally good order. Both wallplates are continuous timbers 8.15 metres long, chamfered with step stops. The posts are unjowled with heavy studding and slightly curved braces trenched to the outside. A cambered tie-beam with deep arched braces between the front and middle bays, chamfered with step stops, originally formed an open truss but has been infilled with wattle and daub at an early date, no later than the 16th century. The wattle is well fitted into nailed studs, and its construction is exposed to the rear in unusually good order.

The original partition between the middle and rear bays largely survives with 3 or 4 studs and one pintle hinge of the original doorway at the left end. In the rear wall is an unglazed window with diamond mortices at top and bottom for one mullion. The middle bay is ceiled, but where visible the original crownpost roof appears intact with 2 crownposts, at least 2 axial braces and all the rafters of the original gablet hip at the rear.

The position and size of the building indicate its originally high status. Those parts which have not been altered merit careful preservation, particularly the first-floor window in the right wall and its early glass, which deserve special care.

An estate map of 1832 shows this house with 2 wings extending to the rear, forming a half-H plan with no other attachments. In the First Edition Ordnance Survey map of 1873 it is shown as the Post Office.