MSO10526 - Little Stamborough (Building)

The building appears to date from the medieval period, with two phases of alterations in the 16th and 17th Centuries. It was divided into three agricultural labourer cottages in the 19th Century but became one house in the 20th Century.

Cottage. C16, enlarged C17. Rendered over rubble, thatched roof, external stone stacks at gable ends, rendered right. L-plan: 2 cell and cross passage with wing at rear. One and a half storeys, 4 bays; late C19 casements, 2-light dormers partly below eaves, ground floor 3-light casement left, small glazed opening to left of entrance, 2-light casements flanking subsidary plank door, thatched hipped pentice porch, plank door. Interior: stud and plank cross passage screen left, 3 pairs of exposed jointed cruck trusses. [1] English Heritage Listed Building Number: 264840. First Listed on 30/04/1979. [2] 2-cell Cross passage plan. Stone, Render walls. Cruck, Gabled roof [3] The building was visited in June 2013 as part of the rapid condition survey of Exmoor's Listed Buildings 2012-13. It received a BAR score of 6. [4] An archaeological building survey and monitoring and recording was undertaken in order to satisfy Listed Building Consent. Works included hand excavation of the existing floor surfaces in the kitchen and dining room. No archaeologically significant deposits were noted. An account of the history of the property, together with a descriptive, measured and photographic record, is also provided. Stamborough is recorded by name from 1781, and may also be referred to in earlier 18th Century documents. Little Stamborough is closely associated with the development of Stamborough and Stamborough Barton farmsteads in its later history, and for a time served as agricultural labourer cottages. The building is suggested to have originated with a three room and cross passage plan, with an open hall defined by low screens and heated by an open hearth or hearths, indicated by smoke blackened roof timbers. It was remodelled in around the early 16th Century, with first floor rooms added above the inner and service rooms; however, the hall was still heated by an open hearth. In the late 16th or early 17th Century, the open hall was enclosed and a large chimney and fireplace inserted, which may not have also served the newly created chamber above. Other rooms were remodelled and may also have changed function at this time, and a new two storey wing was added westwards from the south end of the house. The building appears to have been divided into three separate smaller dwellings in the early to mid 19th Century, as a result of a decline in status; however, it was once again remodelled to become a single occupancy in the 20th Century. [5]