Burton Hall Cottage

NORTH TAWTON BOUCHIERS HILL, North Tawton SS 60 SE 6/91 Burton Hall Cottage II

House, originally farmhouse. Probably early C16 with C17 modifications and C20 partial rebuilding. Rendered and plastered cob walls with some stone. Thatch roof nipped to left half hipped to right end. Axial brick stack and projecting rendered rubble or cob stack at right gable end with brick shaft. Plan: 3-room and cross-passage plan, lower end to the right. It is likely that originally the house had an open hall with central hearth but lack of access to the roofspace makes this uncertain. It is clear however that a fairly high quality modernisation took place in the late C16 to early C17. Probably this took place in more than one stage with the hall remaining open when the lower and higher ends were floored, and the room over the passage jettied into it. The insertion of the hall ceiling and its stack, backing onto the passage, completed the modernisation. The lower room gable end fireplace may be contemporary and a winder staircase was added in a projection at its rear. In the circa mid C20 the front and end walls of the inner room were rebuilt. Exterior: 2 storeys. Asymmetrical 4-window front. C20 casements to first floor - outer ones are 3-light, inner ones 2-light of which the right-hand one is inserted into a C17 moulded wooden frame. On the ground floor are two C20 2-light casements to left and centre and a small-paned 3-light casement to the right. C19 plank door to right of centre behind wide open-fronted C20 timber porch with shallow-pitch gabled roof. Rear elevation has shallow rectangular stair projection at left-hand end with probably original wooden frame to single light window. Interior: between the passage and the lower room is a plank and muntin screen whose muntins are chamfered on the lower side and moulded on the passage side, with a moulded head beam. At the rear of the lower room the winder stairs are preserved with wooden treads on stone steps. The hall fireplace (now blocked) has wooden lintel and granite jambs. Immediately to the left of the fireplace, above the door from the passage, is a richly moulded beam probably for a jetty. Heavy chamfered ceiling beam and exposed roughly chamfered joists. The inner room has a heavy chamfered axial beam with ogee stops. Roof: over the hall is 1 pair of side-pegged jointed crucks, over the lower end of the passage is a closed truss with tie-beam. A C17 doorframe has been inserted into it.

Listing NGR: SS6650502066