Lockhouse

DUNSFORD SX 89 SW

6/16 Lockhouse

• II

House. Late medieval origins, late C16/early C17 alterations. Whitewashed rendered cob on stone rubble footings, water reed thatched roof half-hipped at ends, 2 axial stacks. The present plan is of 2 heated rooms on either side of a through passage (front door blocked) with an additional small room to the right (lower) end. The house has evolved from a late medieval open hall which was remodelled in the circa late C16/early C17 probably as a 3 room and through passage house with the hall stack backing on to the passage, a rear stair turret to the hall, a lower end room that may have been unheated and an inner room; the inner room no longer exists. The small room adjoining the lower end is probably a later outbuilding or service room which has been incorporated into the house accommodation, the lower end is now heated from the right-hand axial stack. 2 storeys. Irregular 5-window front, the eaves thatch eyedbrowed over the left-hand window and rising as a gabled dormer over the right-hand first floor window. Present entrance on front at right with a plank and cover strip front door under a slated canopy carried on brackets. Projecting oven on the front to the left-hand axial stack, a window to the right of the stack replaces the former front door to the through passage. Fenestration of C20 2-light windows, mostly casements with 2 panes per light except for ground floor left which is a 3-light casement. The rear elevation has an attractive rounded stair turret with a separately thatched half- hipped roof and a C17 2-light chamfered timber mullioned stair window. The left-hand end wall of the house suggests that the building formerly extended further to the left. Interior A number of good interior features survive. The hall, at the left end, has one granite monolith and one stone rubble jamb and a chamfered lintel; chamfered cross beam with step stops. A chamfered stopped doorway leads into the stair turret. The lower end room has a smaller fireplace and a chamfered stopped cross beam. C17 2-plank doors survive. The first floor has a chamfered stopped doorframe into the chamber over the lower end. The rafters and battens over the lower end room are smoke-blackened, the main lower end truss has been replaced but a smoke-blackened jointed cruck with a straight collar survives over the hall. A good cob and thatch house of late medieval origins with a particularly fine stair turret and some C17 joinery.

Listing NGR: SX8193689737