Withies Cottage

ST 43 SE 508/1/10006

COMPTON DUNDON COMPTON STREET Withies Cottage

GV II

House. Circa late C15; remodelled C17 and with C20 alterations. Coursed stone rubble. Thatched roof with gabled ends. Gable-end stacks with brick shafts; axial stack truncated.

PLAN: In C17 a 2-room plan house was formed from a late Medieval open hall, of which three bays of its roof survive. It appears that the low [W] end of the Medieval house has been truncated and it is uncertain whether it extended further at the high [E] end. The C17 remodelling involved inserting floors in the open hall to form a 2-room plan with a central entrance and with chambers above; the left [W] room was the kitchen with a smoking-chamber, oven and a stair turret projection at the back; the right [E] room was the parlour, also with a gable-end fireplace; in the front right-hand corner there is a newel staircase. Attached to the right [E] end there is a large outbuilding which has been incorporated into the house accommodation.

EXTERIOR: 2 storeys. Asymmetrical 3:3 window south front. The 3-window range on the left is the original house; C20 2-light casements with glazing bars, first floor with eyebrow eaves; ground floor centre a blocked doorway. 3-window range on right is converted outbuilding with C20 casements, dormers and doorway on left with thatched canopy. At rear, north, rectangular projecting stair turret on right.

INTERIOR: Former kitchen on left [W] has gable-end fireplace with low slightly cambered chamfered timber bressumer with cyma stops, smoking-chamber, brick-lined oven with cast-iron door, and to right a blocked stair turret. Former parlour on right [E] has fireplace with chamfered stone jambs and chamfered cambered bressumer with step stops. Both rooms have deeply chamfered axial and cross-beams and chamfered beams set in front and back walls. Front right [SE] corner has a stair turret with wooden newel staircase with solid timber treads. Left [W] chamber has small C17 fireplace with chamfered cranked bressumer. 3-bay late Medieval roof with three side-pegged jointed cruck collar trusses; the two centre hall trusses with chamfered arch-braces with diagonal stops; chamfered trenched purlins with hollow-step stops, chamfered curved wind-braces and diagonally set ridgepiece; common-rafters intact; all smoke-blackened from open-hearth fire, but the thatch replaced.

Listing NGR: ST4927533292