Straithead Cottage

DODDISCOMBSLEIGH DODDISCOMBSLEIGH SX 88 NE 3/125 Straithead Cottage 30.6.61 GV II House. C17 or earlier. Whitewashed rendered cob and stone ; thatched roof, gabled at ends ; projecting left end stack. Plan: T plan. The original internal plan is not clear, there is a heated room at the left end, divided from the centre room by an irregular passage with a modern stair at the rear ; unheated room in the centre slightly differently aligned from left end room, right end room a converted outbuilding. The centre front wing is timber framed on the first floor and the house is entered through the end of this wing with a doorway to the left which leads into the irregular passage. Exterior: 2 storeys. 1+1+1 window front (one window to the centre wing). Ovolo- moulded square-headed doorframe in wing to left forming porch, altered shouldered inner doorframe ; 3-light casement to right of doorway. Fine and unusual C17 4-light oriel window to first floor of wing carried on moulded carved console brackets, window with moulded mullions. 2-light ground floor casement to left in main range ; C20 door to right in main range with adjacent 2-light casement. The rear elevation, facing the road has 6 small casement windows, one of the first floor 3-light casements is C18 with square leaded panes. Interior: Remains of plank and muntin screen between passage and heated room ; rough chamfered crossbeam to heated room which has a C20 fireplace. The first floor of the wing is supported on a probably re-used ovolo-moulded crossbeam ; chamfered beam with runout stops to room to right of passage. The remains of C17 plaster cornices survive in 3 of the first floor rooms. Roof: Side-pegged jointed cruck truss over left hand end of house ; boxed in truss over centre. No access to apex at time of survey (1987) but the apex might establish whether either of the trusses were medieval.

Listing NGR: SX8553286527