Description

OTTERTON FORE STREET (north side),
SY 0885
Otterton
7/154 The Gardens and April Cottage
GV II

2 cottages, formerly a single house. Late C15-early C16 with later C16 and C17
improvements, subdivided and modernised circa 1970. Plastered cob on stone rubble
footings; stone rubble or cob stacks topped with C19 and C20 brick; thatch roof,
pantile roofs to outshots.
The original house had a 3-room-and-through-passage plan facing south-south-east,
say south, and set back a short distance from Fore Street. The former inner room is
at the right (eastern) end. Both the former inner and service end rooms have gable-
end stacks and the former hall has a rear lateral stack. The Gardens now occupies
the hall and inner room at the right end and April Cottage occupies the former
passage and service end room. The passage screen in the latter has been removed.
Both cottages have a similar single storey 1-room service outshot built onto the
rear circa 1970. Main block is 2 storeys.
Overall irregular 4-window front of C19 and C20 replacement casements all containing
diamond panes of leaded glass. The front doorway of the former passage now belongs
to April Cottage and it now contains a circa 1970 stable-type door and a
contemporary hipped thatch hood on long curving timber struts. The doorway to The
Gardens is to rear of the right end wall and it contains a circa 1970 door with a
similar hood. The roof is gable ended to left and half-hipped to right.
Interior. The Gardens was not available for inspection at the time of survey.
April cottage was and if that is anything to go by The Gardens should include some
good early carpentry detail. The oldest feature is the roof(only inspected in
part). There is a truss in the party wall between the cottages (over the upper end
of the passage). The lower section of the truss is plastered over but its shape
suggests that it is some form of jointed cruck. The roof over this end is smoke-
blackened including some of the thatch there. Since this is the service room end
this suggests that the original house was open to the roof, heated by an open hearth
fire and divided only by low partition screens. On the ground floor no carpentry
detail is exposed. The fireplace however is. It is probably late C16-early C17,
built of local conglomerate sandstone, its oak lintel has an unusually deep soffit
chamfer and the side oven is lined with late C17-early C18 brick. It is unusually
smart and quite small too for a kitchen fireplace. Possibly this was a service end
parlour.
This pair of cottages are very pretty and group with other attractive listed
buildings along Otterton Fore Street.

Listing NGR: SY0828785313

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26389779

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

• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects by Harwood, Richard (2012) Paperback
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  ENGLAND GUIDE TO POST WAR LISTED: A Guide to Post-war Listed Buildings
• 
  The Victorian House Manual (2nd Edition): How They Were Built, Improvements & Refurbishment, Solutions to All Common Defects - Includes Relevant ... ... Properties (Haynes Manual) (Haynes Manuals)
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)