Description

SX 78 NW CHAGFORD

4/69 Stinhall Cottage including garage
20.2.52 adjoining to east

GV II*

House, former farmhouse. Probably early C16 with major C16 and C17 improvements,
modernised circa 1970. Mostly built of large blocks of granite ashlar laid to
courses with some granite rubble patching; granite stacks, 2 with their original
ashlar chimney shafts; thatch roof.
Plan and development: 3-room-and-through-passage plan house built down hillside and
facing north. The inner room at the right (western) end is terraced into the
hillside. Originally an open hall house divided by low partitions and heated by an
open hearth fire the house was progressively floored over with inserted fireplaces in
the C16 and C17. The inner room is small and unheated and was probably the dairy
before circa 1970. The master chamber above has an end stack (now disused). The
hall has an axial stack backing onto the passage and there is an unusual stone
staircase against the rear wall here. The service end room has an end stack and
although the floor level is much lower than the passage there is no evidence of its
former use as a shippon. Dr Alcock calls it a workshop possibly used for dyeing.
The doorway through the end wall here may be secondary. Now 2 storeys.
Exterior: the house now has an irregular 3-window front of C20 casements with
glazing bars. The front passage doorway is set left of centre. The ashlar blocks
around are enormous and the lintel has a roll moulding along its soffit. It still
contains a possibly original early C16 early oak doorframe; a 3-centred arch with
chamfered surround. It contains a C20 plank door. Because of the ashlar masonry
some evidence of the original fenestration can be seen. The tall hall window and
small inner room window both have soffit-chamfered lintels; the top part of the
former was blocked when the hall floor was inserted. Roof is now gable-ended to left
and half-hipped to right. The rear elevation has fewer windows. The inner room
chamber at the up hill end is a C17 granite 2-light window with chamfered mullion.
Again the original inner room and hall windows show up in the ashlar walls, the
former occupied by a window even smaller than the original and the latter blocked by
the C17 stair. At the lower end is possibly a blocked slit window. The rear passage
doorway contains a probably C17 oak doorframe; square-headed with chamfered
surround. The south porch, too, is secondary. It has rubble walls topped with cob
and has a monopitch roof carried down from the main roof. A granite trough projects
from the left porch side wall with a window above it. In the lower end wall there is
another doorway (maybe inserted) and now within the adjoining garage.
Good interior of a house with long and complex structural history. As the exterior
shows that the shell of the original house is substantially intact. The roof
structure too is wholly original. It is 4 bays with hip crucks each end. 2 appear
to be side-pegged jointed crucks (whereas that at the uper end is a true cruck). All
have slightly cranked collars, yoked apexes carrying a diagonal ridge (Alcock's apex
type L1), and butt purlins. The roof, from end to end including the common rafters
and underside of the thatch, is smoke-blackened. This suggests that the early C16
house was all open to the roof, divided by low partitions, and heated by an open
hearth fire. The granite ashlar ground floor partition rt the upper end of the hall
may be original since it includes an oak doorframe similar to the front passage
doorframe.
Shortly afterwards, still in the first half of the C16, the lower end was floored.
The beams and joists here were removed when the first floor level was raised in the
C20. The screen along the lower side of the passage looks like a low partition
screen but, since it includes 2 doorways together at the rear end, the smaller last
one (with the door rebate onto the passage) must be considered a stair door and
therefore associated with the flooring of this end. It is an oak plank-and-muntin
screen with broad planks and chamfered muntins (the stops have worn away). Both
doorways are shoulder-headed. The framed first floor partition is infilled with
wattle and daub and is smoke-blackened on the hall side only.
It is not clear what time the inner room/dairy end was floored over since the chamber
was refurbished in the early C17 when the hall was floored. Alcock even argues that
it might have been floored from the beginning since the first floor frame is pegged
into the truss but admits that, if so, the frame must have been at least partly open
to allow the hall fire to soot the roof rafters here. Before the hall was floored a
fireplace was inserted against the passage. It is large, built of granite with a
soffit-chamfered oak lintel.
In the early C17 the hall was floored over and the inner room chamber refurbished.
The hall crossbeam is soffit-chamfered with the remains of step stops. At the back
of the hall new stairs were provided; they are built of granite, and although very
tight, divide against the back wall to rise in both directions. The inner room
chamber has a fireplace of this date; it is granite with an oak lintel and has a
hollow-chamfered surround with roll stops. There is a niche in the wall alongside.
The garage extension at the lower end contains a pair of large plank double doors to
front. It is rubble built with a thatched roof hipped at the end. It may once have
been a shippon since there are slit windows at the end wall.
Stinhall Cottage is a very attractive house, even by Dartmoor standards, and also is
important as an unusually complete late medieval house with an interesting
development. Atcock suggests that the lower end room was some kind of workshop,
maybe for dyeing, and using the ancient granite lined leat which still runs past the
front of the house. Furthermore Stiniel is an exceptionally picturesque Dartmoor
hamlet which also includes other important listed buildings such as Higher Stiniel
(q.v.) and Stinhall (q.v.). The hamlet has attracted some historic interest since
it is first recorded in 1224 as Stennenhalle which means hall of stone.
Sources: Devon SMR : Dr N Alcock. Stiniel, Chagford. Parts 1 and 2. Devon Life
(March and April, 1974).

Listing NGR: SX7063385519

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17537282

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.

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