Source/Archive record SEM8403 - Rapid historic building assessment and recording at Priory Gate, No. 4 The Ball, Dunster, Somerset

The house was subject to historic building assessment in 2016 in relation to a Listed Building Consent application to remove an internal ground floor wall and replace it with an open partition. The building was noted to be an end terrace cottage with a 19th Century outwards appearance; however, internal inspection revealed earlier fabric such as two 17th Century beams and a large fireplace with integral bread oven in the eastern reveal. The Tithe Apportionment lists the owner of the property as Sir Thomas Dyke Acland and occupied by James Staddon, a farmer, who may not have lived there himself. The house underwent rebuilding or extension to the rear between 1887 and 1902. The southern elevation is of local sandstone rubble but without well formed quoin stones, suggesting the facework was originally rendered. It is possible that all of the windows were cut into the existing masonry and appear to date to the late 19th or early 20th Century. The listing description dates the house to the early 19th Century but there does not appear to be evidence for this. The facework masonry may date to the 17th Century house. The interior includes two beams with chamfers and scroll stops and the fireplace includes a bread oven with a corbelled outer opening, arched inner opening and a shallow dome, but the fireplace also features a scroll stopped chamfered beam, which displays multiple rush light burn marks on its outer face. These features are of late 16th or early 17th Century date but it is thought that most of the remainder of the house dates to renovations in the late 19th Century, although there may be some other survivals, particularly fabric in the side/party walls. N.B. This report has since been incorporated into the report recorded as SEM340844. This record has been retained as a separate Source record on the HER database for reference.