Kerslake Cottage

A house, formerly a farmhouse, located in Bickton, Yettington. The building dates from the late 16th to early 17th century, with the service end stack rebuilt in the second half of the 17th century. It was modernised in the 19th century and again around 1980.

The structure is constructed of plastered cob on exposed stone rubble footings, with stone stacks. The hall and service end stacks have hollow-chamfered limestone plinths and ashlar quoins. The service end chimney shaft is made of late 17th-century brick, possibly imported Dutch brick. The roof is corrugated iron, replacing the original thatch. The building is two storeys high.

The house follows a 4-room-and-through-passage plan, facing south with service rooms at the right (eastern) end. Below the passage is a small unheated room and a kitchen beyond with a projecting end stack. The hall has a front projecting lateral stack, and the inner room has a rear lateral stack. A secondary block projects at right angles to the rear of the inner room, mostly rebuilt in the 19th century with an end stack. A stair turret projects square to the rear of the hall, original but altered in the 19th century. Secondary outshots are present to the rear.

The front elevation is irregular with four windows of 20th-century casements with glazing bars. The front passage doorway is set slightly right of centre, with one side lined in brick showing 19th-century narrowing. It contains a 19th-century 6-panel door. The hall stack to the left has a plastered shaft, either stone ashlar or rebuilt with brick, with a tiny fire window in the left side. The roof is half-hipped to the left and gable-ended to the right. The kitchen stack in the right end wall has weathered offsets and an early brick chimney shaft with a 19th-century oven projection at its base. The rear block includes a disused 19th-century doorway and 20th-century casements with glazing bars, gable-ended.

The interior retains excellent original features. The layout and most details remain original, though all ground floor partitions have been rebuilt in 19th-century brick in the same positions as originals. Along the lower side of the passage is a headbeam from a plank-and-muntin screen. A small section of an oak plank-and-muntin screen was reused in the 19th century in the staircase off the lower end of the passage. The crossbeam in the unheated service room is boxed in. The kitchen crossbeam is soffit-chamfered with truncated pyramid stops, identical to the crossbeam in the inner room. The kitchen fireplace was rebuilt in the second half of the 17th century and altered again in the 19th century. It is large, mostly built of stone rubble, with an oak lintel that is soffit-chamfered with scroll stops. The left side is 19th-century brick with its own small grate and flue. The oven at the rear is also 19th-century.

The hall was apparently floored from the beginning. Its crossbeam and half beams are richly moulded with ovolos alternating with hollow chamfers and have flat urn stops. The fireplace is of high quality, constructed in Beerstone ashlar with an oak lintel, a broad chamfered surround with urn stops, and panelled cheeks. A smaller version exists in the chamber above. To the rear of the hall is a rectangular lobby which presumably housed the original stair before the one in the hall was built. It was divided off from the hall by an oak-framed wall, part of which survives on the first floor. The studs are set relatively close together and have a series of holes in their edges into which riven oak lathes are slotted to provide a ladder backing to the cob infill. The main first floor crosswalls are built in the same way. The roof is carried on four side-pegged jointed crucks. All features of the rear block are 19th-century, and much of the joinery detail in the main block is 19th-century.

Kerslake Cottage is an interesting and attractive house, unusual for Devon in being a single-phase house. All early features date to the late 16th to early 17th century. For that period the plan form appears somewhat old-fashioned even though the hall was floored from the beginning. Some original features, such as the hall fireplace, are of surprisingly high quality for a house of this size. The roof is not accessible. Although no feature can be dated earlier than the mid-19th century, the plan form suggests an 18th or even 17th-century date. The cottage forms part of a group in an attractive hamlet.