The Thatched Cottage

SS 92 SE BAMPTON SHILLINGFORD

6/59 The Thatched Cottage 14.8.81 II

House. Circa early C16 origins, remodelled and extended circa early C17. Cob with some stone rubble facings; thatched roof, hipped at left end, gabled at right end; right end stone stack with brick shaft, rear lateral stack with brick shaft. Plan and Development. L plan with a 3 room and cross passage main range (lower end to the right) and an unheated rear wing at right angles to the inner room. The main range was a late medieval open hall house possibly open from end to end (although no firm evidence of smoke-blackened lower end timbers). The hall was floored and the lateral stack added in the circa late C16, the evolution of the lower end is less clear but it has served as a kitchen, probably in the C17. Small unheated inner room; circa early C17 unheated rear wing. 2 entrances at present, one into the former cross passage, one into what was the left gable end wall of the main range into a small lobby partitioned off the rear of the rear of the inner room and also containing a winder stair. Rear left outshut to main range. Exterior: 2 storeys. Asymmetrical 4 window front with a C20 rustic porch with a thatched roof into the former cross passage. Small 2- and 3-light C20 casement windows. Similar thatched rustic porch on left return with two 2-light casements to the left of the porch. The rear outshut is tiled. Interior: The hall has a late C16 deep hollow-chamfered step-stopped cross beam, exposed joists and an open fireplace with a timber lintel. Doorframes to the cross passage and entrance lobby have cranked heads and carved spandrels. The lower end room has a replaced cross beam and joists; open fireplace with a bread oven and probably a former curing chamber. The rear left wing has a chamfered, scroll-stopped cross beam of the C17 and exposed joists. Roof: 3 jointed cruck trusses, the 2 left hand trusses smoke-blackened with sooted rafters, battens and thatch surviving to the rear of the ridge; closed partition in roofspace to right of central truss. The lower end truss may also be sooted but has been painted, a new collar and king post has replaced the original collar. A traditional evolved house on a corner site in Shillingford. Ground plan and description by Charles Hulland, dated 1978, deposited in West Country Studies Library.

Listing NGR: SS9795423702