Post Cottage

Post Cottage is a house, originally a post office, dating from circa the late 16th century, with remodelling circa the early 17th century, and alterations and extensions circa the early 19th and 20th centuries. The house is constructed of painted and roughcast stone rubble, with a thatched roof featuring gabled and hipped ends, and slate lean-to roofs to outshuts. Stone rubble lateral, gable-end, and corner stacks are present, with set-offs and later brick shafts. The original plan was a 3-room and through-passage layout, with the hall heated by a front lateral stack, the kitchen to the east with a gable-end stack, and the inner room to the west with a rear corner stack. Originally, the house was open to the roof and heated by an open-hearth fire at the east end. A later remodelling in the late 16th/early 17th century included a central front stack to heat the hall, potentially remaining open to the roof, and the insertion of floors, likely in phases, creating attic chambers. Around the early 19th century, a staircase was added to the back of the hall, along with an outshut to the rear of the inner room and hall. A further outshut was added to the east end in the later 19th century, and a small addition to the rear of the kitchen in the 20th century. The north front is asymmetrical with three windows, featuring small 19th-century 2- and 3-light casements with glazing bars and timber lintels, and attic windows under eyebrow eaves. A projecting lateral stack is centrally located, with the thatch extending to the left and over an integral porch. A circa early 19th-century 4-panel inner door is present, alongside an outshut on the east end with a lean-to roof and a 20th-century casement. There's a semi-circular projection on the right corner with a conical slate roof. The rear (south) elevation has an outshut with a slate lean-to roof, 20th-century casements, and a 20th-century flat-roofed single-story extension to the right. Inside, the through-passage features a stone floor and a plank-and-muntin screen to the right, with moulded muntins. The hall has chamfered cross-beam with hollow step stops, a fireplace with an unchamfered timber bressumer, a stone oven, and a small integral unglazed and blocked window to the right, with a 2-light wooden frame. The inner room and kitchen have ceiled walls; the front window of the inner room includes panelled shutters. 19th-century plank doors are found throughout. A circa early 19th-century straight staircase rises from the hall with stick balusters. The bed chambers are ceiled, although the principals and purlins are exposed. The 6-bay Medieval roof is significantly smoke-blackened from end-to-end, with a concentration of soot at the east end. It features collar-trusses with principals set on wall tops, and two centre trusses have simple jointed-crucks, as well as two tiers of threaded-purlins, common-rafters, battens, and some smoke-blackened thatch. It represents a good example of a small late Medieval house, originally open to the roof and heated by an open-hearth fire.