Old Cawte Farmhouse And Wall To The North West

Old Cawte Farmhouse and Wall to the North West

A house and adjoining wall on the south side of Dunsford Butts. The farmhouse is possibly of early 16th-century origin, with substantial alterations dating to the late 16th and mid to late 17th centuries, followed by 20th-century renovations.

The building is constructed in whitewashed rendered cob and stone rubble with a thatched roof, gabled at the left end and half-hipped at the right end. Two prominent stacks rise from the front: a projecting left-end stack with a brick shaft, and a more substantial projecting granite ashlar stack with set-offs and a tall granite shaft and cap on the right side of the front wall.

The house follows a single-depth plan of two rooms flanking a central passage, which was formerly a through passage. The right-hand room, heated from the front lateral stack, appears to have been the late 16th-century hall. The left-hand room, probably originally the lower end of the building, became a parlour in the mid to late 17th century, though it was used as a kitchen by the 19th century. An unheated rear right wing adjoins the higher end and contains stone rubble walling; it may have been partly or wholly rebuilt. The roof truss over the lower end appears to predate the truss over the higher end and may be late medieval in origin.

The evolution of the house is complex. The likely sequence begins with an open hall two-room house of the early 16th century, remodelled in the late 16th century as a two-storey structure with two or three rooms, with the hall heated from the lateral stack and possibly a parlour wing at the rear. The next phase, around the mid to late 17th century, saw the refurbishing of the lower end as a parlour, and the roof over the higher end may have been rebuilt at this time. The kitchen's location at this date is uncertain and it may have been detached. The rear wing appears to have been partly rebuilt in the 19th century.

The front elevation is nearly symmetrical with three windows. The eaves thatch is eyebrowed over the two outer windows and rises as a gabled dormer in the centre. The fine projecting granite ashlar stack heats the hall to the right of the doorway to the passage. The doorway has an old pegged frame and three granite steps in front. The fenestration consists of 20th-century two-light windows with diamond-leaded panes; a small timber stair window on the ground floor left is constructed from a single piece of timber. A projecting semi-circular stone rubble bread oven projects at the left gable end.

The interior contains high-quality 16th and 17th-century features. To the left of the passage is a fine oak plank and muntin screen; the muntins are chamfered with bar stops on both sides. A 20th-century door has been inserted into the screen. The 17th-century parlour to the left has a chamfered cross beam with elaborate bar stops. The fireplace is partly blocked but features a chamfered timber lintel and chamfered timber jambs on stone rubble footings. Adjacent to the stack is a timber newel stair set within a rounded internal stair turret.

The hall to the right of the passage contains a fine 16th-century granite fireplace, partly blocked, with a massive hollow-chamfered granite lintel and hollow-chamfered granite jambs. The roofspace was not accessible at the time of survey in 1985, but the pegged collar rafter truss over the right end appears to be 17th-century, with a cranked collar mortised into straight principal rafters. The truss over the left-hand end is a jointed cruck and is said to show evidence of smoke-blackening.

A section of tall cob wall with tile capping adjoins the house at the north west.

This is an evolved house retaining some fine 16th and 17th-century features.