Steps Cottage

Steps Cottage

A house dating from circa 1500, remodelled in the early to mid 17th century and extended in the 18th or early 19th century, with further alterations in the 20th century. The building is constructed of local limestone and slate rubble with a thatched roof, hipped at the higher right end and gabled at the lower left end. The left section has scantle slates and a consequently slightly lower roof line. Chimney stacks stand at either end; the right-hand stack is now an axial ridge stack due to the extension at the right end, while a projecting rendered lateral stack at the rear left is incorporated into a stair turret with a tapered shaft.

The original medieval building was open to the roof from end to end and divided by low screens into probably two rooms and a central through passage, with the large lower end room to the left. Floors were inserted in the early to mid 17th century, when a lateral stack was also built at the back of the lower left-hand room with an integral stair turret that partly blocked the back doorway of the through passage. The screen on the lower left side of the passage was repositioned further left to create a wider passage allowing access to the newel stairs. The left-hand room's lateral stack incorporates an oven. The right-hand room is heated by a fireplace on the higher end wall, possibly inserted when the floor was added. The lower end stack serves the chamber above. In the 18th or early 19th century, a single-room extension was added to the higher right-hand end.

The exterior presents two storeys in an asymmetrical three-window range, with the right-hand window in the extension. Current windows are 20th-century two- and three-light metal casements with leaded panes in wooden frames, supplemented by a small late 19th-century two-light casement to the right. A doorway left of centre is sheltered by a 20th-century stone porch with a lean-to slate roof. The lower left end originally had two 18th or early 19th-century two-light casements with leaded panes on the first floor and a later 19th-century three-light casement on the ground floor. At the rear, the projecting lateral stack and rectangular stair turret are enclosed within 20th-century outshuts. A short parallel range at the back of the lower end belongs to a later adjoining house.

Interior features include plank and muntin screens in the passage: the higher right side screen has chamfered muntins, while the lower left side screen is later with scratch-moulded muntins, as do some of the joists over the passage. Both screens have been repaired and the lower left-hand screen partly removed. The right-hand room has chamfered joists on its higher right side with pyramid stops notched on the pyramids. The lower left-hand room contains a chamfered cross-beam and a half-beam with hollow step stops. The rear lateral fireplace in the left-hand room has a timber lintel with a stopped chamfer, stone rubble jambs, and a clay bread oven. The fireplace in the higher end room has been narrowed with its lintel raised. The newel stairs feature wooden treads and a blocked window.

The roof comprises two trusses, heavily smoke-blackened on both sides, with morticed apexes, morticed cracked collars, and threaded ridge-piece and purlins. The purlins, ridge-piece, rafters, battens and thatch between the two trusses are all heavily smoke-blackened and survive in situ. The trusses are raised crucks with feet embedded well down into the walls. Extra trusses inserted at the lower end are clean and have morticed apexes, with purlins resting on the backs of the principals. The roof over the right-hand end extension was not inspected.