Ford Cottage

Ford Cottage is a farmhouse, now a house, located in Molland. The building originated around 1500, was altered in the early to mid-17th century, and partly rebuilt in the mid to late 19th century. Late 20th-century alterations have affected the roof and interior.

The exterior is rendered, probably over coursed stone rubble and cob, with parts rebuilt in uncoursed stone rubble with some red-brick dressings. The roof consists of a half-hipped scantle-slate roof to the right and a higher gable-ended corrugated-iron roof to the left. A rendered lateral stack stands at the front with offsets and a late-19th-century brick top stage. The building faces south-east with ground falling to the north-east.

The plan follows a late-Medieval three-room and cross-passage arrangement. Originally this was an open hall house, consisting of a hall with an unheated inner room (latterly a dairy) to the left, a cross passage, and a service room (now kitchen) to the right. The hall was formerly open to the roof, as evidenced by the smoke-blackened truss at its lower end, and probably the entire structure was once continuously open with rooms divided by low partitions.

During the 17th century, the building underwent significant remodelling including the insertion of a first floor, probable rebuilding of ground-floor partitions, and the addition of a large external stack to the front wall of the hall and an integral lateral stack to the rear of the kitchen. A rectangular lean-to stair projection was added at the rear of the upper end of the hall. The eaves were raised over the hall and inner room end, probably in the 17th century or later. The service end was partly rebuilt and possibly enlarged in the late 19th century. A probably late-19th-century lean-to extends from the rear of the kitchen. The right-hand part of the service end was internally divided, probably in the mid to late 20th century.

The building stands at two storeys. The asymmetrical three-window front features late-19th-century two- and three-light wooden casements with wooden lintels. A late-20th-century two-light ground-floor wooden casement with wooden lintel has been inserted at the right-hand end. A mid-20th-century half-glazed door stands between the second and third windows from the left, with a rendered stone porch featuring a catslide roof and concrete steps flanked by wooden benches. The rear elevation includes a segmental-headed rear doorway at the service end and a one-storey lean-to to the rear of the kitchen.

Interior features include a hall with two deep-chamfered spine beams with run-out stops and plastered half beams, and a window seat in the front window. The left-hand wall displays a 17th-century full-height chamfered two-tier corner bench-end with short finals. A doorway between the hall and inner room has a 17th-century pegged straight-sided arched frame and an old boarded door, approached by three steps from the hall. The inner room has chamfered spine beams and beams along walls with stepped run-out stops. A blocked fireplace exists in the kitchen. A 17th-century semi-circular oak winder stair at the rear of the upper end of the hall has an old boarded door at its foot.

The roof contains significant late-Medieval smoke-blackened elements, including a jointed cruck truss at the lower end of the hall with trenched purlins and pegged mortice and tenoned apex. A smoke-blackened diagonally-set ridge-piece extends over the hall and service end, truncated over the service end. Internal partitions rising into the roof space at both upper and lower ends of the hall section lack smoke blackening and likely date from the 17th-century alterations. A pair of unblackened trusses over the service end dates either from the 18th century or the 19th-century alterations. Late-20th-century roofing sits above the old roof over the hall and inner room.

A probably early-17th-century chamfered Tudor-arched wooden doorframe was removed from the house in the 1960s and subsequently reused in the bar of the London Inn in Molland, likely in connection with internal alterations carried out at that time.