Ham Cottage

SY 08 NE NEWTON POPPLEFORD STATION ROAD, AND HARPFORD Newton Poppleford 5/86 Ham Cottage (formerly listed under - cottages adjoining the Shieling) 11.11.52 GV II*

Small cottage occupying part of an original larger house. Early C16 with C17 improvements; the original house probably divided up in the late C18-early C19. Plastered cob on stone rubble footings; stone rubble and brick stacks topped with C20 brick; thatch roof. Small 2-room plan cottage facing south and occupying the former inner room end of an original 3- or 4-room and through-passage plan house. The hall, passage and service end room to the left (east) is divided off and now occupied by The Old Bakery (q.v.). A C19 extension on the right (west) end is now occupied by the Sheiling (q.v.). Each room has a stack in the end party walls which have been rebuilt in the C20. Tie left (eastern) room is divided by a secondary central axial partition. 2 storeys. Irregular 2-window front of C19 and C20 casements, those on the ground floor with glazing bars and those on the first containing C20 rectangular panes of leaded glass. Doorway is a little left of centre and contains a late C19-early C20 4-panel door smaller than the original. The roof is continuous with the adjoining properties. Good interior: the 2 rooms are separated by an early C16 oak plank-and-muntin screen with chamfered muntins with cut diagonal stops. At the rear end is the original doorway, a 2-centred arch. This was probably a low partition screen. It has been cut into 2 halves and a massive post inserted in the middle to carry axial beams to the rooms either side. These beams are probably late C17 or early C18; the left has a roughly-finished soffit chamfer and the right one is soffit-chamfered with runout stops. The roof is original. There is one face-pegged jointed cruck truss in the left end wall (the upper end of the original hall) and another over the screen. Both are filled with probably late C16-early C17 large framing. The roofspace is inaccessible and therefore the question of smoke-blackening remains open. The C17 plaster is backed on water reeds rather than wooden lathes. The right (western) party wall is cob and forms the end wall of the original house. Ham Cottage and its neighbour, The Old Bakery (q.v.) is an important and well- preserved house but certain questions of interpretation must remain open because the evidence is hidden by C17 and later plaster. Here it seems there is a 2-room inner room end but it is possible that an old screen was used to subdivide a large single inner room. Either way it seems that this end was originally open to the roof and the roof timbers may be smoke-blackened from the open hearth in the former hall.

Listing NGR: SY0876189738