Delamore Orchardleigh

Delamore and Orchardleigh are two cottages, originally a single house, dating from around the late 17th century. A division into two cottages likely occurred in the early 19th century. The construction utilizes local stone rubble, with the rear wing rendered. The roof is covered with scantle slates, originally grouted, with gabled ends. The Delamore section of the roof has been reclad in asbestos slates. Chimneys are rendered, with one at the right-hand gable end of Delamore, a rendered axial stack near the left-hand gable end of Delamore, and a rendered stack at the gable end of the rear wing.

The original house likely comprised two principal rooms, with a central through passage. The right-hand room was heated from an axial stack to the left, and a small, unheated room was situated at the left end. Behind the left-hand principal room was a contemporary wing, containing a large room likely used as a kitchen, featuring a gable-end fireplace. The 19th-century division created two cottages, involving the removal of the partition on the right-hand side of the passage, blocking the rear doorway, and creating a small entrance lobby at the front of the passage. A doorway was also inserted in front of the left-hand stack to create an entrance lobby for the left-hand cottage. A late 20th-century conversion transformed a previously attached farm building into an extension of the living accommodation for the right-hand cottage.

The facade presents an asymmetrical four-window arrangement. The ‘Orchardleigh’ side features late 19th or 20th-century two-light casement windows, while ‘Delamore’ has late 20th-century two-light casements on the ground floor and early 19th-century three-light casements on the first floor, with diamond-shaped leaded panes. A small, single-light window is centrally placed on the ground floor. The original doorway giving access to ‘Orchardleigh’ has a 20th-century glazed and panelled door, supported by an earlier canopy with shaped brackets. The doorway towards the left end is likely a 19th-century addition, featuring a wooden lattice porch and a 20th-century panelled door. Rear windows are 19th and 20th-century casements, and a late 19th-century plank door leads to the rear wing.

Inside ‘Orchardleigh’, the right-hand room displays chamfered cross-beams with run-out stops, a blocked fireplace, and the removal of the partition on the right-hand side of the passage. Delamore’s larger front room also features cross-beams with run-out stops, while the small, unheated room to the left has two re-used moulded joists (with ovolo and hollow profiles and convex stops) acting as posts supporting a beam. The roof structure incorporates elm trusses with cambered collars lapped and pegged to the faces of the principals, which have mortice and tenoned apexes. The right-hand gable may have been raised, which could indicate the current roof structure is not the original.