Barnstaple House Galleon Cottage Plantaganet Cottage

Three adjoining cottages on the south side of High Street in Chittlehampton, with the right end cottage partly used as a shop. Galleon Cottage and Plantaganet Cottage date from the early 16th century, while Barnstaple House appears to be a 17th and 18th-century addition. The entire range was subdivided and altered during the 19th century, with further changes in the late 20th century.

The buildings are constructed with unrendered stone rubble to the ground floor and rendered cob above, beneath a thatched roof with gable ends. Chimneys comprise a brick shaft at the left end, an axial stone rubble stack, a rendered stack towards the rear right end, and a brick stack to the gable end of the rear wing at the right end.

The complex plan is L-shaped overall. Galleon Cottage at the left end consists of a single room with a winder staircase beside the gable end stack. Plantaganet Cottage contains two rooms with back-to-back fireplaces and a steep winder staircase in the rear left-hand corner of the left-hand room. Both Plantaganet and Galleon Cottages have thatched rear outshuts. Barnstaple House comprises three rooms in line, with staircases at each end; the two left-hand rooms have fireplaces across the rear angles sharing the same stack, while the right-hand room serves as a shop. A rear kitchen wing of one room extends from the right end, though it may originally have extended further south.

The planning demonstrates an extraordinarily complex and interesting development pattern through successive subdivision and merging of units. The original core, confined to Galleon and Plantaganet Cottage, comprises a three-bay open hall house showing the heaviest smoke-blackening towards the left gable end. A closed stud partition now dividing Galleon and Plantaganet Cottage rises to the roof apex between the two trusses. To the right, close to the right-hand truss, an inserted partition wall incorporates the back-to-back fireplaces to the centre of Plantaganet Cottage, with the right-hand room's fireplace being a still later development; a fragment of wall painting apparently cuts through the inserted floor level. Plantaganet Cottage was subsequently divided into two one-room cottages, with evidence of a demolished staircase in the rear right-hand corner of the right-hand room. Barnstaple House, a late 17th or early 18th-century addition, was similarly occupied as two cottages separated by a solid wall partition, later becoming an alehouse and in the 20th century reverting to single private occupancy.

The two-storey elevation comprises an eight-window range. Galleon Cottage and Plantaganet Cottage retain principally 19th-century fenestration with two-light casements: two of four panes to the left, two of six panes to the right, above two stable doors each with two two-light casements of six panes per light to the right. The window to the right of Galleon Cottage's entrance door has a wide timber lintel and is inserted within a blocked doorway, possibly the original entrance. The right-hand window to Plantaganet Cottage is similarly inserted into a blocked doorway. Barnstaple House has entirely 20th-century fenestration of two-light metal casements with square leaded panes. The rear wing retains mainly 19th-century fenestration.

The ground floor of Galleon Cottage is not accessible to inspection, but features a chamfered cross ceiling beam close to the gable end stack, 17th or 18th-century timber door surrounds to the rear outshut, and a timber winder staircase beside the gable end stack. Plantaganet Cottage has a steep timber winder staircase to the rear of the left-hand room, a chamfered fireplace lintel and hollow step stopped bressumer. The right-hand room contains a small fireplace with a rounded stone back and a fragment of early wall painting on the same wall, which continues above the inserted floor. There is a hollow step-stopped bressumer to the upper end. Barnstaple House has adjacent fireplaces across the rear angles of the two principal rooms with chamfered lintels and a chamfered cross ceiling beam with hollow step stops in the left-hand room. The rear kitchen wing includes a creamery niche. A 18th-century raised and fielded two-panelled door with H-L hinges stands between the two principal chambers.

The roof structure of Barnstaple House comprises trusses with pegged apexes to straight principals with waney rafters and purlins. The two trusses to Galleon and Plantaganet Cottage are listed in the Cruck Catalogue as true crucks, with two tiers of threaded purlins and ridge purlin. A remarkable and possibly unique survival in North Devon is a large number of scantle slates underneath the thatched roof towards the left gable end, fastened with small wooden pegs. The closely spaced battens indicate this was the original roof covering, and the slates themselves, battens, rafters and main roof members are heavily smoke-blackened. The use of slates in the late medieval period likely reflects the building's location in a densely settled nucleated settlement area, employed as a fire-risk reduction measure.