Walnut Tree Cottage

Walnut Tree Cottage, Compton Dundon

A cottage of mid-18th century date with later 18th and 19th century non-domestic additions, located on Ham Lane.

The building is constructed of painted, coursed blue lias rubble under a thatched roof, with a rebuilt east-end chimneystack of red brick. Windows are two-light timber casements of various dates, with those on the ground floor of the south elevation dating to the 19th century. Set within the west gable wall of the cottage, visible from within the lean-to, is a lancet window with stone surround that is probably medieval in date and has been re-sited here.

The building is rectangular on plan, oriented west-east. Originally it was a two-bay cottage of one and a half storeys, to which a two-bay, single-storey structure was added at its west end prior to 1800. An attached lean-to was added at the western end, apparently in the 19th century.

The roadside (north) elevation features an off-centre doorway to the right with a casement window to the left-hand bay. The garden (south) elevation has a wide central doorway to the original eastern half, flanked by casement windows, with two further windows set under eyebrows in the eaves. To the west are 20th century French doors and a casement window, both with concrete lintels. At the far west end, a wide doorway with plank door provides access to the lean-to.

Internally, the eastern part was the original dwelling, consisting of a living room and smaller room, now forming one large space. A significant proportion of 18th century features survive here: a large fireplace with timber bressumer, large ceiling beams with thin chamfering, and a stone winder staircase adjoining the fireplace. Although altered, the original form of the hearth remains evident and retains a re-sited cast iron fireback dated 1538. The attic floor is divided into two adjoining rooms. The western half contains few historic features, consistent with its original non-domestic use. The roof carpentry in both halves comprises trusses of principal collared rafters (the western collar has been lost) with single rows of staggered purlins, all pegged.

To the south-west of the cottage is a series of outbuildings depicted on the 1886 Ordnance Survey map, built of coursed rubble stone. These include a former earth closet and the remains of several pigsties.

The cottage appears on a map of Compton Dundon of circa 1790, set within a sizeable plot. Documentary sources indicate that during the 1750s plots of land within the parish were being enclosed for cottages, likely including the land to the south of Ham Lane. The building dates stylistically from the mid-18th century and was subsequently extended by two bays at its western end, probably in the latter part of the 18th century. This later addition is believed to have initially served a non-domestic use, possibly as a barn or stable, and has now been incorporated into the cottage. By the 1886 Ordnance Survey map, a small addition appeared on the north side; this is absent from the 1923 map.