Description

PLYMTREE PLYMTREE
ST 00 SE
3/145 Knights Cottage
-
GV II

House, formerly 2 cottages. Mid - late C17, some C19 alterations and an extension,
the cottages were united and modernised in 1959. Plastered cob on stone rubble
footings; cob stacks topped with C19 and C20 brick; thatch roof to the main block,
slate roof to the C19 extension.
Plan and development: 5-room plan house facing south. The left (west) end room
which was heated by a rear lateral stack is a C19 extension; it is said to have been
a shoemaker's shop. The rest is mid - late C17 and was built as a pair of mirror
plan 2-room cottages each compromising a small inner unheated room, probably a dairy
or buttery and a larger outer living room with a gable-end stack. Now the left
inner room has been converted to an entrance hall containing the main stair and the
right inner room has been converted to a kitchen. Formerly each cottage had a stair
rising alongside the chimneystack but both have been removed. The house is 2
storeys.
Exterior: irregular overall 6-window front of C20 casements with glazing bars and
the wall is propped by 2 plastered brick raking buttresses. The main front doorway
is roughly central and it contains a C20 plank door under a contemporary thatch-
roofed C20 plank door. This door is a C20 insertion. Each cottage formerly had a
central doorway; the left one is blocked by a window but the right one remains and
now contains a C20 French window. The rear wall has similar C20 casement windows
and includes a small bay window which replaced a projecting C19 privy which flushed
into a brook running along the back of the house. The roof is gable-ended.
Interior: the C17 section is well-preserved and most of the carpentry detail is
original. Both of the former living rooms have a chamfered and scroll-stopped
crossbeam although the right end room crossbeam is distinguished by a nick added to
each stop. Both have plastered stone rubble fireplaces (including some brick
patching) with oak lintels. The lintel soffit of the left fireplace has been cut
back but the right one is intact and is chamfered. Both contain oven doorways. The
ground floor doorways are consistently wider than usual but the reason for this is
not known. The roof is carried on A-frame trusses with pegged dovetail-shaped lap-
jointed collars. Apparently the principals are supported on wall posts.
This house represents an early survival of a pair of small artisan - class cottages.
It also forms a group with other listed buildings in the village.

Listing NGR: ST0528002886

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26456245

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

• 
  A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide
• 
  Georgian Style and Design for Contemporary Living
• 
  London 4: North: North v. 4 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cornwall (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Building Small Projects (New Best of Fine Woodworking)