Stanley Cottage

MINEHEAD

SS9744 MANOR ROAD, Alcombe 900-1/5/143 (North West side) 04/07/52 Nos.20 AND 22 Stanley Cottage (Formerly Listed as: MANOR ROAD, Alcombe (North West side) Nos.20, 22 (Stanley Cottage) and Nos.7 and 8 Cefn Court)

II

2 cottages, formerly one dwelling. Dated 1665 but possibly earlier, with C19 rear wing to the left. Painted rubblestone, thatched roof, gabled to the left, hipped to the centre and right, with rubblestone stacks to left gable end and to left-of-centre of the ridge of No.20 to the right. 2-unit plan with rear right wing (now No.8 Cefn Court (qv)); No.22 has hall bay to right of entry. 2 storeys; 3-window range. The door to the left of No.22, probably a later insertion, is set well back, a shallow buttress to its left is a forward continuation of the side wall, the corner of the roof above is unsupported. A central projecting rectangular bay has a datestone with 'I L E 1665' and a 3-light leaded casement window with painted ovolo timber mullions to both floors; these are to the right corner of the bay with a single-light window to the right return. A similar window is to the first-floor right with a taller C19 two-light casement below. First-floor windows are at eaves level. No.20, single-storey with attic, is set back. To the first floor a 2-light leaded casement window in a half dormer is to right-of-centre with a similar window under a timber lintel to the ground-floor right. Below the dormer is a slightly taller C19 casement window. A C20 door with a lean-to porch on brackets is left-of-centre. The rear wings are in Cefn Court (qv). INTERIORS: No.22 to the left has an open fire to the left gable end with a former bread oven to the rear and a stone water boiler to the right all now blocked. Above the oak lintel is a plaster frieze of mythical anthropomorphic figures alternating with strapwork devices. On the ceiling are 2 groups of plaster pomegranates and scrolls with a chamfered oak beam to the right. At the top of the oak newel stair to the right of the fire is a painted wood Tudor arch. The ground-floor rear-right corner is said to have a boarded-over stone Tudor arch to No.20. The upper room , now divided, has a narrow ovolo-moulded cornice below the purlins which is ceiling level; to the centre are two large plaster Tudor roses. The small upper room, above No.20, has a cambered tie beam to the hipped roof. No.20 has an unusually high ceiling and what appears to be a papered-over jetty end; (to the right of it would be the covered-over Tudor arch leading to No.22). A Tudor arch to the left of the rear wall leads to a lean-to. A complex and well-preserved example of West Somerset vernacular architecture, including some notable C17 plasterwork.

Listing NGR: SS9757044967