Description

SY 08 NE NEWTON POPPLEFORD STATION ROAD,
AND HARPFORD Newton Poppleford
5/86 Ham Cottage (formerly listed under
- cottages adjoining the Shieling)
11.11.52
GV II*

Small cottage occupying part of an original larger house. Early C16 with C17
improvements; the original house probably divided up in the late C18-early C19.
Plastered cob on stone rubble footings; stone rubble and brick stacks topped with
C20 brick; thatch roof.
Small 2-room plan cottage facing south and occupying the former inner room end of an
original 3- or 4-room and through-passage plan house. The hall, passage and service
end room to the left (east) is divided off and now occupied by The Old Bakery
(q.v.). A C19 extension on the right (west) end is now occupied by the Sheiling
(q.v.). Each room has a stack in the end party walls which have been rebuilt in the
C20. Tie left (eastern) room is divided by a secondary central axial partition. 2
storeys.
Irregular 2-window front of C19 and C20 casements, those on the ground floor with
glazing bars and those on the first containing C20 rectangular panes of leaded
glass. Doorway is a little left of centre and contains a late C19-early C20 4-panel
door smaller than the original. The roof is continuous with the adjoining
properties.
Good interior: the 2 rooms are separated by an early C16 oak plank-and-muntin screen
with chamfered muntins with cut diagonal stops. At the rear end is the original
doorway, a 2-centred arch. This was probably a low partition screen. It has been
cut into 2 halves and a massive post inserted in the middle to carry axial beams to
the rooms either side. These beams are probably late C17 or early C18; the left has
a roughly-finished soffit chamfer and the right one is soffit-chamfered with runout
stops. The roof is original. There is one face-pegged jointed cruck truss in the
left end wall (the upper end of the original hall) and another over the screen.
Both are filled with probably late C16-early C17 large framing. The roofspace is
inaccessible and therefore the question of smoke-blackening remains open. The C17
plaster is backed on water reeds rather than wooden lathes. The right (western)
party wall is cob and forms the end wall of the original house.
Ham Cottage and its neighbour, The Old Bakery (q.v.) is an important and well-
preserved house but certain questions of interpretation must remain open because the
evidence is hidden by C17 and later plaster. Here it seems there is a 2-room inner
room end but it is possible that an old screen was used to subdivide a large single
inner room. Either way it seems that this end was originally open to the roof and
the roof timbers may be smoke-blackened from the open hearth in the former hall.

Listing NGR: SY0876189738

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17546953

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

• 
  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Yorkshire: York and the East Riding (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Period Property Manual (New Ed)
• 
  Sussex: East with Brighton and Hove (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Shropshire)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1958)