Black Street House

Black Street House

House, formerly a farmhouse. The building dates from the early to mid-16th century with significant improvements made in the late 16th and 17th centuries, followed by thorough refurbishment in the early 19th century and modernisation in 1986. It is constructed of plastered cob on stone rubble footings, with granite stacks and granite ashlar chimneyshafts, beneath a slate roof that originally had thatch.

The house is L-shaped with the main block facing east. It follows an altered 3-room-and-through-passage plan. At the left (southern) end is a small unheated inner room, probably formerly a dairy. The hall has an axial stack backing onto the passage. The service end contains two rooms, the inner one with an axial stack backing onto the outer room. A parlour wing projects at right angles in front of the inner room, with its own stack backing onto the main block and a small unheated store room at its end.

In its original form, the main block had its hall and passage open to the roof and heated by an open hearth fire. A hall fireplace with a passage chamber was likely inserted in the mid or late 16th century, and the hall was floored over during the 17th century. The date of the service room division and stack insertion is unclear. The parlour wing was added in the early or mid-17th century. The present arrangement of rooms largely reflects the early 19th-century refurbishment, when the passage rear doorway was blocked by a new main stair with a projecting rear turret, the inner service room was converted to a parlour or drawing room, the hall became a dining room, and the original parlour was turned into a kitchen.

The house stands two storeys high. The main block has a regular but asymmetrical 4-window front with 19th-century 16-pane sashes. The passage front doorway is left of centre, with a 19th-century 6-panel door set within a shallow porch under a low-pitched roof. The main block roof is gable-ended to the right and hipped to the left. The inner side of the former parlour wing retains its original 17th-century 4-light granite-mullioned window with a roll-moulded surround containing rectangular panes of leaded glass. The granite hoodmould labels are carved with the initials RH. This wing has a hipped roof.

The interior largely reflects the early 19th-century refurbishment, which appears to have been superficial. No carpentry is visible in any room, and fireplaces are blocked by 19th-century grates. The joinery is entirely 19th-century in character, including the main open string stair. However, the former plan is preserved, and the size of the hall fireplace remains evident around the chimneypiece. An alcove at the rear of the lower end of the hall is thought to be the former stairwell.

The original roof survives over the hall and is unusually sophisticated for the area. It comprises three bays with ovolo-moulded arch-braced trusses, intermediate trusses, and sets of inverted windbraces. It is smoke-blackened from the original open hearth fire. The roof over the inner room and service end is inaccessible. The former parlour contains a plain soffit-chamfered crossbeam. Its fireplace is of granite ashlar with a broad roll-moulded surround; the left side is rebuilt in 19th-century brick with an inserted oven. A 19th-century cream oven stands to the rear. The roof of this section is carried on A-frame trusses with pegged lap-jointed collars.