Description

MORETONHAMPSTEAD FORD STREET (south side),
SX 7586
Moretonhampstead
8/139 Beam Cottage
-
GV II

Possibly a row of houses, sub-divided into a row of cottages and now one house.
Circa late C16 or early C17.
Painted granite rubble, eaves raised in cob. Steeply pitched Belgium clay tile
roof with gabled ends. Rendered axial ridge and gable end chimney stacks with
thatch weatherings.
Probably a row of contemporary houses. Original plan uncertain but it appears that
the right-hand part is a 2-room plan house, each room heated by end stack, and
possibly originally with central passage which now contains later stairs.
Adjoining left is another 2-room plan house, the left-hand room probably unheated,
the right-hand room with stack backing on to left end of the other house. The
range probably continued with another house on the right-hand end, because there
are fireplaces on the exposed right-hand gable end.
2 storeys. Long asymmetrical 5-window range. Front has various early C20 wooden
casements and late C20 plastic casements, all with wooden lintels. Ground floor
centre window has large chamfered lintel. Doorway inserted under right-hand end of
this lintel with C20 plank door and C20 wooden gabled porch. Various small C19 and
C20 casements are rear with timber lintels.
Ground at rear is at much lower level, which is probably partly due to later
excavation.
Interior: one chamfered cross beam in each of the right-hand and centre rooms with
hollow bar stops. All the fireplaces have chamfered wooden lintels with the same
hollow bar stops, one on left side and one on each floor of the right side of the
axial stack, and another on first floor of the end stack on the exposed right-hand
gable end. The other fireplaces are blocked, as is the ground floor fireplace on
the exposed right-hand gable end. Room at left-hand end was originally divided by
veryheavy post and panel screen, unchamfered and with square section sole-plate and
rail. This screen has been taken out and was lying in the garden at time of survey
1985. The doorway between the two 2-room plan houses has only recently been made,
and roughly hewn collars halved and pegged to face of principals which are trenched
for purlins which are missing. Roof over left end is entirely C20.
A row of early 2-room plan house like this is very uncommon.

Listing NGR: SX7526286102

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26389476

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Cork: City and County (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability
• 
  [(Shropshire)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1958)
• 
  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of Historic Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas