Description

SX 69 SE SOUTH TAWTON SOUTH TAWTON

4/197 Black Street House
22.2.67
GV II*

House, former farmhouse. Early-mid C16 with major late C16 and C17 improvements,
thorough refurbishment in the early C19, modernised 1986. Plastered cob on stone
rubble footings; granite stacks with granite ashlar chimneyshafts; slate roof,
formerly thatch.
Plan and development: L-shaped building. The main block faces east. It has an
altered 3-room-and-through-passage plan. Small unheated inner room, probably a
former dairy at the left (southern) end. The hall has an axial stack backing on to
the passage and the service end has 2 rooms, the inner one with an axial stack
backing onto the outer one. Parlour wing projects at right angles in front of the
inner room. The parlour stack backs on to the main block and there is a small
unheated store room on the end of the parlour. The original house occupied the main
block and then the hall and passage at least were open to the roof and heated by an
open hearth fire. The effects of the early C19 refurbishment have hidden most of
the evidence of the later C16 and C17 development. Nevertheless it seems likely
that the hall fireplace was inserted with a passage chamber in the mid or late C16
and the hall was floored over in the C17. It is not clear when the service room was
divided and the stack inserted there. The parlour wing was added in the early or
mid C17. The present house is basically the result of the early C19 refurbishment.
At this time the passage rear doorway was blocked by a new main stair, the turret of
which projects to rear. Also the inner service room was converted to a
parlour/drawing room, the hall a dining room and the original parlour to a kitchen.
House is 2 storeys.
Exterior: main block has a regular but not symmetrical 4-window front of C19 16-
pane sashes. Passage front doorway is left of centre and has a C19 6-panel door in
front of a shallow porch under a low-pitched roof. Roof is gable-ended to right and
hipped to light. The inner side of the former parlour wing contains the original
C17 4-light granite-mullioned window with a roll-moulded surround and contains
rectangular panes of leaded glass. The granite hoodmould labels are carved with the
initials RH. This wing has hipped roof.
Interior: main block is largely the result of an apparently superficial early C19
refurbishment. No carpentry shows in any of the rooms and the fireplaces are
blocked by C19 grates. The joinery detail is early C19 including the main open
string stair. Nevertheless the former plan is preserved and for instance the size
of the hall fireplace shows around the chimneypiece. An alcove to rear at the lower
end of the hall is throught to be the former stairwell. The original roof survives
over the hall and it is unusually sophisticated for the area. It is 3 bays with
ovolo-moulded arch-braced trusses with intermediate trusses and sets of inverted
windbraces. It is smoke-blackened from the original open hearth fire. The roof
over the inner room and service end is inaccessible. The former parlour has a plain
soffit-chamfered crossbeam and the fireplace is granite ashlar with a broad roll-
moulded surround (its left side is rebuilt in C19 brick with an inserted oven). C19
cream oven to rear. Roof of this part carried on A-frame trusses witn pegged lap-
jointed collars.

Listing NGR: SX6558594492

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17537198

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

• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  Warwickshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Farrow & Ball How to Decorate: Transform your home with paint & paper
• 
  Listed Buildings, Conservation Areas and Monuments
• 
  Harrow on the Hill: A photographic portrayal of listed buildings and structures (Historic Buildings Picture Guides)
• 
  Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)