Jasmine Cottage And Attached Front Wall, Railings And Gate

Jasmine Cottage and Attached Front Wall, Railings and Gate, Charlton Mackrell

A house of early 16th century or earlier origin, substantially altered in the late 18th and early-to-mid 19th centuries. The main range was truncated, probably in the later 19th century, and the building underwent comprehensive renovation and extension in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

The walls are constructed of coursed and squared blue lias stone with lime pointing. Two rendered brick gable-end chimney stacks rise from clay double-roman tile roofs with gabled ends.

The plan follows an L-shape, organised around a through-passage positioned at the far right-hand end. To the left of the passage lie the hall and an unheated inner room, with a single-room heated wing extending behind the inner room. The lower end to the right of the passage is believed to have been truncated by the construction of a later 19th-century chapel and schoolroom now abutting the house. The hall fireplace backs onto the passage and appears contemporary with the framed ceiling in that room. The rear wing appears to have functioned as a parlour with a gable-end fireplace. A slight projection of uncertain function in the angle of the wing may have once contained a staircase. Between the late 18th and mid 19th centuries, the front range was heightened to match the rear wing. In the later 19th century, the lower end was truncated, leaving the through-passage as a single storey only. Between 1993 and 2004, the house underwent comprehensive and sympathetic renovation, including construction of a two-storey rear extension in the angle between the front range and rear wing, which now houses the staircase.

Externally, the building presents two storeys with a small single-storey section at the right-hand end for the through-passage, which has a very shallow pitched roof. The front elevation is regular with two windows. All windows were renewed during the recent renovation works, generally following historic precedent. They are timber casements with small panes, except for the ground-floor left-hand window which has rectangular leaded lights. A late 20th-century door of wide elm planks sits at the far right. Oak lintels frame the ground-floor openings. The left gable end has a central window on each floor, both late 20th-century two-light casements with leaded lights; the lower opening is recent. The outline of the original gable is still discernible in the stonework. The wing extends behind the left-hand end of the house with no visible break in the stonework, each floor carrying one two-light small-paned timber casement window. A stone lean-to against the rear gable of the wing contains a three-light small-paned casement window to the left and a plank door to the right. On the inner face of the wing on the first floor is a re-used late 19th-century three-light casement window. To the left of the wing at the rear and set back from it stands the two-storey gabled extension constructed in 2003, with a small lean-to to its left containing a part-glazed door.

The interior is notable for its 16th-century features of high quality. The passage has a blue lias stone flagged floor and exposed plain joists to the ceiling, extensively replaced in the late 20th century. At the rear is a low chamfered two-centred timber arched door frame, considerably weathered on its rear face. In the left-hand passage wall towards the rear is a chamfered four-centred arch timber door frame leading to the hall.

The hall features a four-panel framed ceiling with substantial deep-chamfered beams and closely-spaced square-section exposed joists. Slight traces of painted decoration remain on the beam above the window. A large open fireplace has chamfered blue lias jambs and a heavy timber lintel whose soffit has been hacked off but retains evidence of mason's mitres to fit the jambs. Above the lintel is a projecting timber cornice with unusual carved crenellated ornament. At the higher end of the hall is a plank-and-muntin screen with chamfered muntins featuring run-outs at the top and high diagonal stops at their bases. The floor is of lias flagstone. The inner room has two substantial cross-beams with deep chamfers and step stops. The exposed reverse side of the screens to both hall and wing are undercoated and more crudely finished, indicating a lower status room.

The wing features a plank-and-muntin screen with mason's mitres to the head of the muntins. Two chamfered cross-beams with hollow step stops support a 19th-century plastered ceiling between them. The fireplace is considerably smaller than that in the hall, with chamfered blue lias jambs with pyramid stops and a timber chamfered lintel with mason's mitres to the jambs. The floors are of lias flagstone. On the first floor, the early roof truss is exposed in the partition between the two front rooms at a significantly lower level than the existing roof-line. It consists of straight principal rafters with evidence for two sets of trenched purlins and a morticed collar. Between the main range and the wing is a closed truss with the remains of original wattle-and-daub in its upper section; the lower part has been reconstructed as an oak-framed partition on the evidence of the head beam of the screen below, which is grooved along its top edge with mortices for posts. The rear wing contains a similar open truss with a cambered morticed collar and one set of trenched purlins. Walls throughout are lime plastered except on modern partitions.

A low blue lias wall surmounted by simple traditional railings with horizontal rails and uprights runs attached to and in front of the house, with a similar gate. Despite its modest external appearance, this house contains a remarkable range of 16th-century internal features of a quality indicating a higher status than its exterior suggests.