Gate House

Gate House, North Bovey

A house, originally probably a farmhouse, dating from the mid to late 15th century with 17th-century modifications and 20th-century alterations and additions. The building is constructed of rendered granite rubble walls with two rendered brick gable end stacks and a granite axial stack with brick shaft. It has a gable-ended thatched roof that rises slightly over the first-floor windows.

The original plan comprises three rooms and a through-passage, initially open to the roof from end to end with low partitions. The inner room was ceiled first during the early to mid-16th century with an internal jetty projecting into the hall. A hall stack and ceiling were inserted around the mid-17th century, with the lower end ceiling, fireplace, and inner room fireplace inserted at approximately the same time. The hall stack backs onto the passage.

In the 1950s, a rear wing was built onto the lower end and the house was subdivided below the cross passage, subsequently passing into different ownership. Both parts have recently come under the same ownership again and will shortly be converted back into a single house.

The building is two storeys with an asymmetrical three-window front. The first-floor windows are positioned to the left of the porch. The two left-hand windows are 19th-century two-light casements with glazing bars. To their right is a very small single-light casement with diagonal leaded and coloured panes, with a similar window below. The ground floor has glazed 20th-century doors to the left with a 20th-century two-light diagonal leaded pane casement to its right, followed by a three-light hall window which is a 19th-century casement with glazing bars. To the right of centre is a wide 19th-century six-panel door to the passage within a 17th-century gabled granite rubble porch with dressed granite jambs corbelled at the top to support a thatched gabled roof. To its right on the ground floor is a late 20th-century canted bay window supported on brackets, containing a three-light aluminium-framed casement. The right gable end has late 20th-century aluminium-framed casements to both ground and first floors, with shutters. A stone mounting block stands against the left gable end.

The interior contains two original roof trusses, one over the lower end of the passage and one over the hall and inner room partition. Both are open trusses showing extensive evidence of smoke blackening throughout. The substantial principal rafters are joined by a yoke at the apex which carried a square-set ridge, surviving only over the lower end truss. The lowest tier of smoke-blackened purlins survives, trenched into the principals. A few original common rafters also survive, some set on top of the higher end truss. Between the two trusses is very rough smoke-blackened plaster on both sides. At the upper end of the hall ceiling are the remains of an internal jetty consisting of three chamfered and curved joist ends projecting over the partition between hall and inner room. The hall features a complete fine-quality mid-17th-century beamed ceiling with a central ovolo-moulded cross beam and original joists with scratch mouldings to the edges. The hall fireplace has a chamfered wooden lintel with run-out stops, with an oven built in underneath on the right-hand side. In the passage, the hall fireplace back is constructed of granite ashlar. The lower room contains a substantial roughly chamfered cross beam.

This house exhibits good features from various periods, particularly its early roof structure, and preserves a relatively unspoilt facade with a notable 17th-century porch.