Lower Ball

Lower Ball is a house dating back to the 17th century, with some 18th-century refurbishment and alterations around the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including rebuilding and an extension to the right end. The house is constructed of cob on stone rubble footings, with a whitewashed and rendered front elevation. The front left corner has been rebuilt using local volcanic rubble. It has a thatched roof with plain gabled ends, and end stacks, including an axial stack to the right of centre and a projecting front lateral stack with set offs, a tall rendered shaft, and a semi-circular bread oven.

The original 17th-century plan comprised three rooms and a through passage, with the lower end to the right. The hall/kitchen was heated by the front lateral stack and included a semi-circular rear stair turret. The narrow room to the left was likely originally unheated. Around the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the building was divided into three cottages. A single-room plan addition at the right end probably dates from this phase, along with the rebuilding of the front left corner in stone and the provision of a second door on the front. A straight stair has been inserted in the former passage, and a single-storey brick rear lean-to with a corrugated asbestos roof likely dates from the early 20th century.

The front elevation is asymmetrical, with four windows and a front door to the former passage located to the right of the lateral stack. The left-hand side of the front elevation is stone rubble with brick dressings, and a doorway with an internal lobby provides access to the left-hand (inner) room. There are 2-light timber casements, each with either 6 or 2 panes. The thatch on the rear elevation extends as a catslide over the rear stair turret.

Interior features from the 17th century are present in the three left-hand rooms. The hall/kitchen has an unusual plank and muntin screen to the inner room, with moulded muntins stopped off at hall bench level, a moulded head beam, a chamfered cross beam with step hollow stops, and an open fireplace with stone rubble jambs, a chamfered timber lintel, brick-lined bread oven, and a small square window in the chimney breast. Two 18th-century 2-panel doors have been inserted into the screen, with similar doors to the stair turret and on the first floor located on a timber newel stair in the turret. The lower end and inner room also have chamfered stopped cross beams. The roof space was not inspected but may be of interest.