Bell Cottages

SS 90 NW BICKLEIGH BELL HILL, Bickleigh 5/13 Nos 2 and 3 Bell Cottages GV II 2 cottages, formerly 1 house. Circa late C16/early C17. Whitewashed and rendered ; thatched roof with plain ridge, half-hipped at right end, adjoining No 1 (q.v.) at left end ; front lateral stack, rear lateral stack. The original plan is not entirely clear but may have been a 2 room and through passage arrangement (rear door opposed to blocked doorway on front) with a hall/kitchen to the right, heated from the rear lateral stack and a parlour to the left heated from the front lateral stack. However, there are some unanswered questions to the internal arrangements : the relationship between this building and No 2 is unclear and the cross wall between the 2 rooms is surprisingly close to the left hand jamb of the rear wall fireplace. No 3, to the right, may originally have been 2 rooms wide with a very narrow room to the right. Later lean-to adjoins at right end with a tiled roof. 2 storeys. Asymmetrical 3 window front, the front wall blank to the left of the stack. C20 glazed front door to No 3 to right of centre; blocked doorway to putative passage to right of the front lateral stack. C20 timber casements. Interior No 3 (to the right) has an open fireplace with stone rubble jambs and a pyramid stopped lintel ; a chamfered axial beam with scroll stops extends as far as the straight stair, to right of centre of the room. No 2 has a chamfered scroll- stopped cross beam and C20 grate. Adjoining the left end of No 2 is a small square stone room (flying freehold with No 7), said to have been a lock-up. Roof: Straight principal rafters visible in the first floor rooms. Part of a thatched group on Bell Hill.

Listing NGR: SS9407707191