Chancery Cottage Church Gate Cottage Stone Cross

A group of three attached cottages at North Bovey, comprising Chancery Cottage, Stone Cross, and Church Gate Cottage.

The main range dates from the early 16th century. Chancery Cottage and the larger part of Stone Cross originally formed a single house, while the remainder of Stone Cross and Church Gate Cottage were added later as a pair of small cottages. The main range was considerably altered in the 20th century. A dated stone of 1738 on the porch marks the addition of that feature. The adjacent pair of cottages dates to the 18th century.

The buildings are constructed of rendered granite rubble walls, with exposed rubble at the rear. The roof is thatched, hipped to the right and gabled where it joins the adjacent cottage to the left; the cottage roof is thatched, hipped at front and gabled at rear. The main range has an axial granite rubble stack with granite cap to the right of centre and a brick axial stack to the left of centre. The cottage has a brick axial stack.

The plan of the main range follows a 3-room-and-through-passage arrangement with a hall and lower end originally open to roof. A hall stack was subsequently inserted, backing onto the passage, and a fireplace was added to the lower end. The inner room remained unheated. A further room was added at the lower end, probably in the 17th century, likely serving as a dairy given the absence of rear outshuts due to rising ground level. A porch was added to the front of the passage in 1738. The remainder of Stone Cross and Church Gate Cottage were added in the 18th century as an adjacent pair of cottages at right angles to the main block, each with a single ground floor room originally heated by a central stack. A 20th-century outshut with shop front was added to Stone Cross. In the 19th or 20th century, the main range was divided into two cottages at the lower wall of the through passage, with Chancery Cottage to the upper right end and Stone Cross to the lower left end. Stone Cross now extends into one of the adjacent cottages added at right angles.

The building is two storeys. The main range has an asymmetrical 4-window front with a large gabled rendered stone 2-storey porch with thatched roof and a small centred oriel window to the first floor. Other windows are 2-light late 19th or early 20th-century casements. The ground floor incorporates a small store room in its left-hand side with a shallow lean-to projection as its front wall left of the opening. A wide doorway to the through passage has a 20th-century plank door in a 16th-century wooden doorframe chamfered with a depressed 4-centred arch. A slate roof outshut to the left of the porch extends to the adjoining block with a 20th-century plank door to the right of centre and large 20th-century 3-light single pane windows either side. Thatch rises in an 'eyebrow' over the first floor window in the left of the porch. At the lower left end, Church Gate Cottage and its adjoining part of Stone Cross are taller than the main range and face away from it at right angles. It has a symmetrical 2-window front with two windows to the centre and a door either side at ground floor. The windows are 3-light casements with glazing bars; the first floor is probably 19th-century with 20th-century ground floor. A 20th-century stable-type door is set to the right with a shallow wooden gabled 20th-century porch to the left with double plank doors.

The interior of Stone Cross has been inspected. Chancery Cottage was inaccessible at the time of survey but is reported to have a granite ashlar back to the hall fireplace facing onto the passage with moulded cornice and plinth. On the first floor of Stone Cross, in the room above the passage, a very substantial roof truss is exposed up to collar level, arguably smoke-blackened on both sides. It has a pronounced curve but no visible joint, with a broad chamfer and a curved collar morticed into the truss. The feet are not visible. The roof at the lower end was probably replaced in the 19th century, with difficult access to the higher end roof space. In the room formerly belonging to the 18th-century cottage is a small open fireplace with a rough wooden lintel.

Late Medieval fabric survives in this property despite considerable alterations, and further early features are likely to be found within Chancery Cottage.