MSO10572 - Church Gate Cottage, Luccombe (Building)

A 17th century cottage. In the mid 19th Century the attached school was built and the cottage became the School Master's House. A newer school was built in the late 19th Century and the original became a reading room, then the Parish room.

Cottage, subsequently extended as school, now cottage. Originally 17th century in date and extended in the late 18th or early 19th century. Rendered and roughcast over rubble, thatched roof hipped to curved east end and to lower west end, brick stacks marking extent of original dwelling. Plan: backing onto churchyard, probably 2-cell and cross passage, entrance resited in curved addition at east end, large room added beyond west stack with lower single storey entrance bay. Interior not seen. (Photograph in NMR). [1] Cottage built in the 17th century, possibly utilising a small piece of waste land. The school was added to the west end in the 19th century and the cottage became the School Master's House. When the new school was built in the late 19th century the old one became the Reading Room, it is now the Parish Room. The Reading Room continues the tapered shape of the building (see plan before P. 3). The roof is thatched apart from the porch which is tiled. The walls are rendered and limewashed with a black tar band. The east end of the north wall is irregular with a buttress or oven set into it. [2] Church Gate Cottage with a former school extension, which later became a reading room dates from the 17th century, with the extension added in the late 18th or early 19th century. Both have good examples of leaded iron casement windows, the latter with the tall windows of the former schoolroom and wrought iron window box supports. [3] The building was visited in May 2012 as part of the rapid condition survey of Exmoor's Listed Buildings 2012-13. It received a BAR score of 6. [4] The building is not shown as subdivided on the 2020 MasterMap data. It is labelled Church Gate Cott". [5] There are church rooms attached to Church Gate Cottage, although these appear to mainly be used for storage. [6] The building was assessed as part of the rapid condition survey of Exmoor’s Listed Buildings 2018-19, receiving a BAR score of 5. [7]