Cherubeer Manor Including Pump Immediately To South

Cherubeer Manor, including a pump immediately to the south

House, formerly a farmhouse, with 15th-century origins, early 17th-century alterations and additions, and 20th-century modernisation. Built of plastered cob with a thatch roof, hipped to the left and gabled to the right end. Two tall rubble stacks: one partly plastered, projecting laterally at the front, and another at the right gable end.

The building's original plan is not entirely clear. It now comprises three rooms, the central one evidently the hall, but with no passage. The lower room is entered through a fine 15th-century doorway but was formerly of non-domestic use, with a granary above and a thick wall dividing it from the hall. This end may have been downgraded as a subsequent development. A 17th-century doorway leads directly into the hall, behind which stands what appears to be a 17th-century outshut with a 19th-century one adjoining. The hall is heated by a front lateral stack with an adjoining window bay, both inserted into what was originally an open hall with a central hearth. The extent to which the building was open to the roof remains unclear, though a section above the hall retains this feature; the remainder was re-roofed subsequently. The fireplace has a high lintel and the window projection is only single storey, suggesting the hall may have remained open for some time after the stack and window were added.

In the later 20th century, the lower room and granary were converted to domestic use, and a general restoration took place, including the re-use of some 17th-century windows from another building and the replacement of others with 20th-century facsimiles.

The exterior presents two storeys in an asymmetrical four-window front. The left first-floor wall features a 20th-century leaded light with a flight of stone steps to its right leading to a first-floor doorway. Beyond that are a two-light and a three-light 20th-century casement. To the right on the first floor is a 20th-century square-section three-light wooden mullion with leaded panes, with a contemporary three-light chamfered wooden mullion below. Right of centre is the hall projection, which contains a later 20th-century three-light wooden transomed window with leaded panes and an original stone hoodmould above. In the right-hand wall of the window projection is a tiny wooden-framed ogee-headed squint. The hall stack is incorporated within the hall projection. To its left stands a 17th- or 18th-century stone open-fronted porch with a seat on the left-hand side and incorporating an oven projection as its right-hand wall. Behind the porch is an early 17th-century chamfered doorframe with true mitres and a 19th-century plank door. To the left of the porch, leading into the lower end, is the original 15th-century wide ogee-headed wooden doorframe with a 17th-century plank door.

A 20th-century stone garage leanto is set against the left-hand end, re-using 17th-century three-light ovolo-moulded wooden mullion windows in its end wall, with one in the house wall above. The rear wall has two outshuts with a 17th-century three-light chamfered wooden mullion window to the right and a similar 20th-century window to its left.

The interior of the lower room has chamfered axial beams with run-out stops. The hall contains an open fireplace with a chamfered wooden lintel but rebuilt stone jambs. Much of the joinery that appears early was installed or constructed during recent modernisation.

A small section of original smoke-blackened roof survives over the hall, consisting only of rafters and thatch. The remainder of the house was re-roofed in the 17th or 18th century with substantial straight principals, some resting on posts set into the wall with threaded or trenched purlins.

The building preserves a particularly picturesque and traditional exterior. Although its appearance and internal character derive partly from 20th-century work, this has been done in a commendably sensitive manner that does not detract from the house's essential interest.

An 18th-century lead pump with a granite trough stands in front of the house, though it may not be in situ.