Gappah Cottage

Gappah Cottage is a house dating from the 17th century, possibly representing a remodelling of an earlier 16th-century building. It is constructed of whitewashed plastered cob on stone rubble footings, with a 20th-century tiled roof (replacing earlier thatch) that is gabled at the ends. The building features an axial stack and a projecting stack at the left end.

The house is two storeys tall with a single-depth plan, three rooms wide, and retains 17th-century features. The current arrangement suggests a three-room plan with through passage, though the passage at the right end has been converted to a bathroom and the front door blocked. A hall-kitchen occupies the centre with an axial stack backing onto the passage, and a narrow inner room lies to the left, possibly originally unheated with a stack added in the 18th century. Two entrances exist on the rear wall: the rear right entrance to the former passage and a rear left entrance (now blocked) leading to the inner room, both being 19th-century work. The rear right doorway opens into a small lobby providing access to the room in the former passage, the 17th-century hall, and a rounded projecting rear stair turret. The precise original plan remains uncertain without full access to the roof apex, though the presence of the stair turret (which does not appear to be part of the original build) and a half beam in the hall suggest the building may have originally been an open hall house, possibly dating from the early 16th century.

Interior features of note include: in the hall, an open fireplace with stone jambs (the right-hand jamb rebuilt when the bread oven was removed) and a lintel with scroll stops; a chamfered cross beam with scroll stops; and a plank and muntin screen between the hall and inner room, with muntins chamfered and scroll-stopped at hall bench level. A good two-plank 17th or 18th-century door separates the hall from the entrance lobby. The inner room contains a 20th-century grate and a niche in the end wall. A chamfered stopped doorway leads to a wide newel stair with timber treads and a blocked slit window in the turret beneath. On the first floor, side-pegged jointed cruck trusses are visible, with the foot of one truss, approximately 1.5 metres above ground, visible in the cupboard under the stairs and showing no visible means of support. The principal first-floor room has a 19th-century fireplace with an open grate. Both rear doors are 19th-century plank and stud, characteristic of Clifford Estate houses. The roof timbers are likely to be medieval.

Gappah Cottage occupies a prominent site adjacent to the road. The rear stair turret is an especially attractive exterior feature, and the interior details are of good quality.