Godford Cross

Godford Cross is a farmhouse later converted into two cottages, located in Awliscombe. The building dates from the late medieval period and was thoroughly updated in the late 16th or early 17th century. It was subsequently subdivided and extended at the rear and to the right in the mid-19th century.

The main building is constructed of rendered cob, with additions built in red brick. The roof is slated, though the addition to the right is covered in corrugated iron. Rendered chimneys of probable brick construction from the 19th or 20th century are positioned at the left end of the ridge and off-centre to the right.

The original plan is of two rooms with a through-passage, with a half stack backing onto the passage. Three small rooms occupy the rear. A workshop range extends to the right, which was at one time a post office.

The exterior shows two storeys, with the right-hand end of the rear addition single-storeyed. The main range is three windows wide, featuring a four-panelled door with the bottom two panels flush and the top two glazed. The windows contain two- and three-light wood casements, each light having one horizontal glazing bar. The addition to the right displays three segmental-headed windows on the ground storey, the two to the left containing three- and four-light wood casements respectively. The upper storey has a single window five panes wide and two panes high. A postal wall-box with the initials GR is set into the right end-wall. The left end-wall contains an old plank door fitted with a knocker and letterbox.

Internally, the through-passage has a stud-and-panel screen to the left adjoining the lower room, with chamfered studs featuring run-out stops, almost resembling step-stones in places. Two doorways at the right-hand end, of different design but the same date, stand at this location: the left has a chamfered square-headed surround; the right, serving as the stair door, has a rebated surround with a cranked head. The rear doorway and doorway into the hall have chamfered frames with cranked heads. A plank door with strap hinges provides access to the hall.

The hall features a deeply-chamfered beam with step-stops and a complete set of original joists. A half-beam is positioned against the gable-wall. The wide hall fireplace has a chamfered wood lintel; the joists appear to have been rebuilt, that to the left in wood and that to the right in large squared stone blocks. An oven in the back has been converted into a cupboard. The staircase in the rear left corner is enclosed by a 19th-century plank partition with moulded ribs; a plank half-door with strap-hinges provides access to the cupboard beneath the stairs. Disused joist slots suggest there was no 16th or 17th-century stair in this position.

The lower room has a beam with shallow chamfer, originally laid crosswise but boxed to an axial position around 1990. The partition with the passage has squared studs on this side and a small gable-chimney, probably added in the 19th century. A stair was removed around 1990. The upper storey contains a doorway between the rooms over the passage and hall, with a chamfered frame and cranked head, fitted with an old studded plank door with strap-hinges and wooden latch. The rear left-hand room contains a mid-19th-century cast-iron grate set in a plain wood surround with a bracketed shelf.

The roof structure comprises four bays with three jointed-cruck trusses. A hip cruck at the upper (right-hand) end has its top sawn off. The two right-hand crucks are face-pegged, that to the right showing a visible slip-tenon. Both feature cranked collars, two tiers of through-purlins, and a diagonally-set ridge of Alcock type B. Both trusses are heavily smoke-blackened on both sides. The left-hand of the two trusses has wattle-and-daub infill above the collar with plaster on the left side only; both sides are blackened with stake-holes for former infill below the collar. This evidence suggests the medieval house was single-storeyed with open hearths in both rooms. The third, far left-hand truss is clean with side-pegged jointed crucks, straight collar, and an apex of Alcock type F2. Its front purlin is a blackened, re-used partition beam with a groove at the top and stake-holes on the underside; the middle section contains a halving with a peg-hole for a vertical stud, possibly belonging to the partition under the middle truss.

Medieval houses of two-room plan are very rare in Devon, and the evidence for two open hearths adds significant interest to this example.

The 1840 title map shows the building as still a single house, owned by the Reverend E. W. Grinfield and occupied by Thomas Clapp. A person of the latter name is listed as a wheelwright in White's directory of 1850.