Old Beams

NEWTON ST CYRES THE VILLAGE SX 89 NE 5/44 Old Beams - (formerly listed as 26.8.65 Old Beans) GV II

House. Probably C15 with C16 and C17 improvements and some later work. Plastered cob on rubble footings; cob and volcanic stone stacks with brick tops exposed above thatch. 3-room and through passage plan along street, with inner room to right (south-west end) and later additions to rear. Now 2-storeys throughout. Asymmetrical 4-window front to road on north-west. Passage door left of centre with simple trellis porch. Mainly C19 casements; the largest is of 4-lights to hall beneath mid -C19 bow window with thatched gable over with shaped bargeboards. The house has a long and complex structural history. Apparently, the earliest part is defined by the south-easternmost 3 roof bays (over hall and inner room); jointed cruck trusses distinguished by slip-tenons augmenting the side-pegging of post to principal, and yokes under each apex. This structure is completely smoke-blackened suggesting a house originally divided by low partitions. A more conventional side- pegged jointed cruck carries roof 1 bay further north-east. It too is smoke blackened. A framed partition over the upper passage screen is smoke-blackened on both sides suggesting 2 open hearths in second phase. During C16 both ends were floored and stone stack inserted to hall backing onto the passage. The hall was floored in C17 by a chamfered beam with scroll stops. Both the small cob wing behind inner room and kitchen wing behind service room are probably C17 additions. Some of service end rebuilt in C19. Clearly more early carpentry remains hidden.

Listing NGR: SX8811197951