Cator Higher Cator

Cator and Higher Cator is a former longhouse, now extended and divided into two houses, located at Widecombe-in-the-Moor. The building dates from the 16th century with later additions. The original house-part is constructed of granite rubble and retains its thatch roof; the owners report that the lowest layer of thatch has not been removed during their occupation. Each gable features a granite rubble chimneystack: the southern stack, which heated the former hall, is built of small stones with a tapered cap, while the northern stack is constructed of larger stones with a plain top. The other roofs are covered with asbestos slates, except for the lean-to on the west side facing the road, which has real slates.

The building is arranged on two storeys, with single-storey lean-tos. The original plan appears to follow the traditional three-room longhouse arrangement, but with a long inner room at the north end, now subdivided. A cross-passage survives on the south side, with a smaller room to the north now forming part of Higher Cator. The hall features its stack backing onto the former shippon (at the south end), with a winding staircase housed in a shallow turret beside the stack on the east side. A cross-passage originally existed at the north end of the shippon before this section collapsed in the early 20th century.

In the 20th century, the shippon at the south end was rebuilt, the north end was extended with a lean-to on the west side, and a long lean-to on the west side (probably mostly of the 18th or early 19th century, though parts may be earlier) was added or substantially altered.

The east front, facing the garden, is four windows wide in the old house-part. Most windows are 19th-century wood casements with two or three panes per light. The left-hand second-storey window is early or mid-18th century, comprising three lights with lightly moulded wood mullions; the two outer lights contain diamond-shaped leaded panes of old glass. At the left-hand end is a slightly projecting rounded stair turret with a single small stone-framed window. The front wall of the hall to the right is built out almost level with the turret. To the right again is the doorway into the inserted cross-passage, which has a 20th-century stone porch featuring a reused segmental-arched granite doorway brought from a barn at Huccaby Farm, Lydford. The windows flanking the porch at ground storey level have granite lintels, with that to the right being chamfered. The 20th-century lean-to at the right-hand end has an early 16th-century stone window-head with two moulded round-arched lights, brought from Lizwell Farm, Widecombe; the left half of the left light is a modern restoration. The west front, facing the road, is almost entirely concealed by the lean-to, which mostly has small-paned wood casement windows, except for two 20th-century metal casements at the right-hand end.

Higher Cator (to the left) has an old plank door. Cator has an old chamfered granite doorway with a flattened four-centred arch, brought from Peak Hill Farm near Yelverton. To the left of it is a small square window (now blocked) with hollow-moulded granite jambs extending almost the full height of the opening. Beneath it is an old granite mounting-block with three steps.

The hall interior has chamfered upper-floor beams with straight-cut stops and plain joists. The fireplace features a hollow-moulded right jamb and a granite lintel; the left jamb has been rebuilt and contains an oven with a stone-framed opening. To the left is the winding staircase with granite steps. A stone wall at the upper end rises only through the ground storey. The inner room was not inspected (except for the inserted passage), but the owner reports that gable-fireplaces on both floors, now blocked in, have plain granite lintels. The former shippon retains its original drain, now floored over. The back of the hall stack, facing the former cross-passage, is plain. The house-part has old roof-trusses with plain feet; there is no inspection hatch to the roof-space.