Belle Vue And Abigails

Belle Vue and Abigails

Two adjoining cottages on the west side of South Molton Street in Chulmleigh, originally forming a single dwelling. The building is a late medieval open-hall house, possibly dating from the mid-16th century, remodelled probably in the early to mid-17th century and later divided into two separate occupations, with alterations continuing through the 19th and 20th centuries.

The exterior is constructed of painted rendered stone rubble and cob. Belle Vue has a thatch roof with a plain ridge and rendered gable end stacks, whilst the rear range has a slate roof with a gable end. A rendered lateral stack with offsets stands to the rear of Abigails.

Belle Vue occupies the left side of the building and consists of a single large ground floor room with a winder staircase in a shallow projecting rear stair turret. A two-storey attached outbuilding to the right has been converted in the late 20th century to form part of the dwelling, extending at right angles to the rear of the front range.

Abigails contains an entrance passage with a staircase at the rear to the left, leading to a principal room heated by a rear lateral stack. A narrow inner room at the right end was divided axially in the late 18th or early 19th century to create a small front parlour with a fireplace across the rear right-hand corner. The smaller rear room functions as a kitchen and scullery, extended in the 20th century by a small single-storey rear outshot.

The roof structure over Abigails reveals its origins as an open-hall house, with heavy smoke-blackening indicating it remained open to the roof for considerable time. The carpentry, with halved and lapped straight collars and trenched purlins, suggests a late 16th-century origin. The remains of a truss and clean cob wall at the right gable end indicate the house may originally have extended further to the right. The unchamfered bressumer at the inner room end and the remarkable narrowness of that space are notable features. A timber sill between the hall and inner room end suggests a screen partition once existed. The lower end of the entrance passage contains a solid cob wall which reduces to a thin partition at first floor level, with remarkably well-preserved and heavily smoke-blackened wattle work visible in the roofspace.

The house was probably divided into two occupations in the late 18th or early 19th century. Belle Vue was divided axially towards the rear to create a small rear kitchen, though this partition has since been removed. The front wall of Belle Vue appears to have been built out at a later stage.

Externally, the building is two storeys with a three-window range. All windows are four-paned sashes. A 20th-century door serves Belle Vue, whilst a four-panelled door with glazed upper panels serves Abigails.

The interior of Belle Vue contains two hollow step-stopped axial ceiling beams, the front beam chamfered on one side only, indicating the front wall has been built out. A fireplace is probably concealed by a 20th-century grate. The treads to the winder staircase have been replaced in the 20th century. Abigails has a single hollow chamfered cross ceiling beam resting on a chamfered hall fireplace lintel with run-out stops. A raised and fielded four-panelled door opens to the small front parlour. A 19th-century four-panelled door separates the hall and passage. The unchamfered bressumer at the inner room end remains visible.

The roof over Abigails retains its original structure. The truss at the lower end of the entrance passage has remarkably well-preserved wattle-work infill, smoke-blackened on the hall side only. This truss, the truss over the hall, and the partially surviving truss at the right gable end all feature heavy principals with boxed-in feet, two tiers of trenched purlins, a diagonally set ridge purlin, and straight halved and lapped collars with deep protruding pegs. Excepting a small section on the rear side replaced in the 20th century, all roof members including rafters, battens, and the underside of thatch are thoroughly smoke-blackened. No access is available to the roofspace over Belle Vue, though the purlins are carried entirely on the gable end wall and the closed truss on the lower side of the passage.

South Molton Street retains a marked concentration of late medieval open-hall houses, of which Belle Vue and Abigails form an important part.