Description

COLEBROOKE COLEFORD
SS 70 SE
3/124
Spencer Cottage (formerly listed
26.8.65
as Nos 1 and 2 Spencers Cottage)

GV II*

House. Early C16 with major later C16 and C17 improvements, modernised between
1975-85. Main house of plastered cob on rubble footings, timber-framed porch;
stone rubble stacks topped with C20 brick; thatch roof.
3-room-and-through-passage plan house facing east with inner room at right
(northern) end. 2 storey porch to front of passage. C17 kitchen and service block
at right angles to rear of hall. End stack to inner room projecting rear lateral
stacks to hall and service room and axial stack to kitchen. Now 2 storeys
throughout.
Irregular 4-window front of C19 and C20 replacement casements with glazing bars,
and one late C19 3-light horizontal-sliding sash to chamber over hall (to right of
porch). Left of centre is front passage doorway. It contains early C16 oak 2-
centred arch doorway which is now hidden externally by C20 boarding. The early C16
2-storey gabled porch is timber-framed. The first floor room rests on front and
rear pairs of massive oak posts with jowled heads shaped to create inner and outer
shoulder-headed arches, the latter with an external hollow-chamfered surround. The
sides were originally open but now there is a low wall on the right side and left
side, is completely filled with C19 brick. The front of the first floor room is
jettied forward over the outer arch and now carried on C19 brackets. The original
large forward ; exposed only on the right side where a pair of curving tension
braces lap over upright studs. In the centre the original window frame now contains
a C19 casement. It has chamfered reveals and the arrangement of pegs around show
that: the original window was of 2 lights with arched or traceried heads. The main
roof is gable-ended with the front eaves level dropping towards right end, from
hall, to inner room. Rear elevation has C20 rebuilt rear passage. The inner
(south-facing) side of kitchen and service block includes a C17 oak 3-light window
with one surviving ovolo-moulded mullion to first floor rear and also 2 bee-boles.
Rear section of this wing now has corrugated iron roof.
Interior shows work of several periods. As far as can be seen house was originally
part-floored. On lower side of passage is a full height crosswall of cob and
rubble, partly rebuilt with C20 concrete blocks. The passage-hall partition is
C20, a replacement of the original low partition, an oak plank-and-muntin screen.
At the upper end of the hall is a full height large-framed crosswall closing a
side-pegged jointed cruck roof truss. Here the rails are mortised, tenoned and
pegged into tie cruck posts which descend to ground level. The lower level had an
oak plank-and-muntin screen of which only the lead beam now remains. The hall side
of the truss is sooted indicating that the hall was originally open to the roof and
heated by an open hearth fire of the original hall roof only the ridge purl in
remains. It is supported and established in a partly-collapsed position by an early
Hall side-pegged upper jointed cruck truss with a dovetail lap-jointed collar.
Hall has late of - early C17 fireplace built of stone rubble including many
squared blocks of volcanic stone. It has a C20 replacement timber lintel, an C18
inserted cloam oven and a heath of unpended states. Hall was floored in early C17
with an axial beam and half-beams, all with double-ovolo mouldings with runout
stops. Inner room floored with joists only and includes a probably C18 stone
rubble fireplace with a plain oak lintel resting on oak pads. In the service room
there is a plain chamfered axial bean resting on posts with jowled neads and a half
bean which is soffit-chamfored with step stops (probably C16). The stone rubble
fireplace here has soffit-chamfered lintel and is probably C17. The porch has its
original 2-bay roof carried on a tie-beam truss supported on posts with jowled
neads. Kitchen and service wing shows C17 carpentry details.
Coleford is a remarkably unspoilt and picturesque hamlet in which Spencer Cottage
occupies an important visual position, The house is also notable in its own right.
The porch, for instance, is not only a rare and well-preserved rural example of
timber framing in Devon but is also as early as the earliest surviving timber-
framed buildings in the Devon towns.

Listing NGR: SS7718801086

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17530857

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

• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Northumberland (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Nottinghamshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)