Post Office

SAMPFORD COURTENAY STICKLEPATH SX 69 SW 12/201 Post Office GV II House. Circa early C16 with late C16 or early C17 alterations. Plastered stone rubble walls. Gable ended thatch roof. Small brick stack at left-hand gable end. Plan: originally likely to have had 3-room and through-passage plan of which the passage and lower room have been demolished. The house almost certainly was built with an open hall which probably had an open hearth but only a roof inspection could prove this. The chamber over the inner room is jettied into the hall and this was an original arrangement judging by the closed truss in the partition above. The hall stack backed onto the passage, if not original it was inserted in the late C16 or early C17 when the ceiling was put in. Exterior: 2 storeys. Asymmetrical 2-window front of early C20 3-light casements. C20 part-glazed door at left-hand end and leanto wooden porch against right-hand end. Interior: hall has plank and muntin screen at higher end with chamfered muntins. Above it the ceiling projects slightly into the room at a lower level to the rest of the room apparently with a plastered-over beam running along the edge - this strongly suggests an internal jetty. In the main part of the ceiling is an axial beam, richly moulded with converging stops. At the lower end of the hall is a granite-framed fireplace with hollow chamfered lintel resting on shaped granite corbels. Roof-space inaccessible at time of survey. Inner room has ovolo and fillet moulded cross beam with deeply inscribed scrolls to the ogee stops. Newel stairs by fireplace with chamfered wooden lintel. Roof: Over the hall the rear blade of a cruck truss survives (the front one cut off by the chimney stack) with threaded purlins. Above the jetty is a closed truss and there is another open truss over the inner room. No access to roof-space so evidence of smoke-blackening on timbers was not available. Despite its modest size this house preserves some interesting and good quality features.

Listing NGR: SX6421494081