Bridge Cottage Bridge House

Bridge House and Bridge Cottage are two adjoining houses now occupying what was formerly a single building. They originate from the 16th century but underwent significant alteration in the late 17th to early 18th century, followed by thorough refurbishment and enlargement in the mid 19th century.

The buildings are constructed of plastered stone rubble with plastered cob on stone rubble footings. The chimney stacks are built of stone rubble topped with 19th and 20th century brick. The roofing is thatch on the main building, with slate covering the mid 19th century extension.

Bridge Cottage occupies the eastern end of the main block, closest to the road, and follows a two-room plan. The right room has a gable-end stack, while the left room contains an axial stack that backs onto the right room. It has rear service outshots and a rear entrance. Bridge House occupies the remaining two rooms to the west of the main block and is heated by an axial stack between back-to-back fireplaces. The left end room projects forward from the main front and connects to the mid 19th century extension, which runs parallel to the main block. This extension contains a corridor through its right end and a parlour room with a gable-end stack; another stack on the right gable serves the first floor only. A single-room service space with secondary outshots lies to the rear of the main block.

Both houses are two storeys tall. The mid 19th century extension has a two-window front of large 16-pane sashes beneath shallow segmental arches. The front doorway holds a part-glazed six-panel door sheltered by a 20th century gabled porch. The extension roof is gable-ended. The main block displays a regular three-window front with 19th century French windows with margin panes on the ground floor and 19th and 20th century replacement casements containing rectangular panes of leaded glass on the first floor, with thatch eyebrows above. The main roof is hipped at the left end and gable-ended to the right.

The interior largely reflects the mid 19th century refurbishment. No exposed carpentry detail survives on the ground floor. The roof bases show straight principals with scantling large enough to suggest late 17th or 18th century A-frame trusses, though the roof itself was not inspected. However, a side-pegged jointed cruck is exposed in the party wall between house and cottage at a lower level than the present roof, encrusted with soot, proving that the original open hall was heated by an open hearth fire. According to the owner of Bridge House, a structural survey made around 1965 reported "Jacobean panelling" in Bridge Cottage, though its present existence is uncertain following renovation after a fire circa 1970.

Bridge House and Bridge Cottage form part of an attractive group of listed buildings near Culmstock Bridge.