Lyalls Cottage

Lyalls Cottage, Dunchideock

Lyalls Cottage is a house of early 16th-century origins, remodelled in the late 16th century with partial rebuilding possibly in the 18th century and 20th-century alterations. It is constructed of stone rubble and cob, with the front elevation and rear of the higher left end whitewashed and rendered, while the rest of the rear elevation remains unrendered stone rubble. The roof is thatched, half-hipped at the left end and hipped at the right end. The building features a front lateral stack with a tall rendered shaft, an axial stack with paired brick shafts, and a small additional chimney with a brick shaft on the front at the extreme left.

The present plan is a single-depth main range four rooms wide, with a cross passage to the left of centre. At the right (lower) end there is a small wing at right angles to the front of the main range containing a 19th-century stair. The original plan was an open hall house, though by the time of survey in 1985 there was insufficient visible evidence to establish the full extent of the medieval house. Given the site's slope from left to right and the position of the present cross passage, it appears likely that the original passage no longer exists and was positioned to the right of centre, suggesting a three-room plan with the inner room to the left, accompanied by a rounded rear stair turret to the inner room. The hall is heated by the front lateral stack, the putative lower end by the axial stack (formerly the gable end), and the putative inner room by the front left stack, which is probably a 20th-century addition. Twentieth-century alterations included re-siting the hall screen, which is now at the lower end and makes the hall slightly smaller; a second screen is said to have been removed.

The building is two storeys high with an irregular five-window front, the eaves thatch eyebrowed over the first-floor windows. The front door opens to the present cross passage to the left of centre, with a 20th-century porch with a tiled roof. An approximately central projecting front lateral stack with a tall shaft is prominent. The fenestration consists of 2- and 3-light casements of 19th and 20th-century date with glazing bars, except for one 18th-century window on the first floor to the right of the stack, which is a 3-light casement with square leaded panes and HL hinges. The rear elevation has a 20th-century thatched porch and doorway, which may indicate the position of the original passage. Adjacent to the rounded stair turret of the inner room is a blocked doorway opposite to the front door of the present cross passage.

The outstanding interior feature is the plank and muntin screen at the lower end of the hall. Although the screen has been moved and the position of the doorway altered, involving the re-siting of some, perhaps all, of the planks and muntins relative to the head beam, there survives a remarkable example of early 16th-century painted decoration featuring floral designs on both planks, muntins and head beam, and one figure, probably an ecclesiastic with a mitre and hands raised in blessing. The hall fireplace has brecchia ashlar jambs and a timber lintel. To the right of the hall, the putative lower-end room has a cross beam with straight cut stops and exposed joists. The position of a first-floor partition indicates that the first-floor right-hand room originally jettied into the hall. The principal rafters are boxed in and the roof space is only partially accessible, though the apex of one smoke-blackened roof truss is visible above the hall.

Despite the uncertainty regarding the original plan of Lyalls Cottage, it is clearly a late medieval house of high status, with an outstanding survival in the painted hall screen.