MSO10809 - Bidgoods, 19, Bury Road (Building)

Cottage. Probably early C18, refenestrated C19, enlarged mid C20. Rendered over cob, thatched roof hipped to east, external stack west gable end rising from eaves on centre of north front. L-plan: 3-cell with single cell south-west addition. One and a half storeys, north front facing road with one 2-light window to right of stack west gable end, 2-light casements flanking external stack on both floors, entry via single storey single bay C20 addition. Interior: cob dividing wall between 2 westerly rooms, stud and wattle partition to store room at east end, chamfered lateral beam with step and runout stops to centre room with renewed lintel and staircase rising against north wall. Collar beam roof. It is possible that this was originally a single cell cottage enlarged with two easterly rooms. [1] English Heritage Listed Building Number: 265614. First Listed on 04/08/1986. [2] L-plan. Earth, Render walls. Collar beam, Hipped roof [3] The building was visited in March 2012 as part of the rapid condition survey of Exmoor's Listed Buildings 2012-13. It received a BAR score of 6. [4] Possible smoke-blackened thatch was observed in 2017. This would suggest a late medieval date for the building. [5] Two heritage statements were submitted as part of planning applications in 2019. Details of building materials used throughout the property were discussed in the documents. [6,7] An assessment of the historic development of Bidgoods was undertaken by Keystone in 2019. The ground plan is formed of a central hall, now heated by a fireplace in the north wall served by a lateral stack, a western parlour with fireplace and an unheated eastern end that may have originated as a service room, later being known as the apple store (it was integrated into the house in the 1980s). The original plan is not clear but the earliest phase(s) are of cob on stone rubble footings. The original flooring was exposed previously and was of tamped clay, with a central open hearth of stone slabs; the contemporary roof structure remains above, which is suggested to date to the first half of the 17th Century. The hall was floored in the late 17th or early 18th Century, when the fireplace and staircase were likely added. [8] Archaeological monitoring and recording, and building recording at Bidgood's Farmhouse, which is a detached two storey stone and cob house with a thatched roof. The works involved monitoring and recording the lifting of the present floor surfaces inside the ground floor of the building. The monitoring confirmed there had been a significant raise in levels within this building and the modern and post medieval floors hid a much earlier medieval origin for the building. The fabric of the building was then further analysed and assessed to put these discoveries within the context of the upstanding building fabric. The report suggests that the house originated as a medieval open hall house, which was ceiled and a lateral stack and staircase added to the property in the mid 17th Century. A small late 17th or early 18th Century extension is also of agricultural function. [9]