Description

SX 6493 -6593
8/241

SOUTH TAWTON
SOUTH ZEAL
Cawsand View

GV
II

2 cottages in former house. C16 with later C16 and C17 improvements. Plastered cob
on stone rubble footings; stone rubble stacks topped with C20 brick; asbestos slate
to front, corrugated iron to rear, formerly thatch.
Plan and development: 2 cottages facing north-east set back a little from the road.
They occupy a 3-room-and-through-passage plan house. Former inner room at left
(south-east) end, former hall has large axial stack backing onto passage and the
former service end has a gable end stack. The left cottage occupies the hall and
the inner room. The passage is shared. The right cottage occupies the service end
and has a 1-room plan extension to rear. The house has been little modernised and
therefore most evidence of its early development is hidden by later plaster and
wallpaper. Nevertheless it undoubtedly began as a late medieval hall house probably
heated by an open hearth fire. Now 2 storeys with secondary outshots to rear of
hall and inner room.
Exterior: irregular 4-window front of C19 and C20 casements with glazing bars.
Each cottage had a late C19 doorway inserted into the front. Both contain C20
doors, the right one behind a C20 porch. The passage front doorway is open. Roof
runs parallel with the street between the adjoining properties.
Interior: only the passage and left cottage (former hall and inner room) were
available for inspection at the time of this survey. This section at least is
remarkably unmodernised and much of the C16 and C17 carpentry detail appears to
survive although some is hidden. Both sides of the passage are lined with oak
plank-and-muntin screens. The lower (service end side) screen is probably the
earliest and may have been an original low partition. The muntins are chamfered but
the stops have worn off and it includes a blocked shoulder-headed doorway. The
short section of screen on the upper (hall) side is to rear of the hall stack. Its
muntins are chamfered with runout stops top and bottom. In the hall the curved ends
of large joists project over the screen providing evidence of a lower end jetty.
The lower end might have been floored as early as the-mid C16, maybe before the hall
stack was inserted. The hall fireplace is granite ashlar but its lintel is hidden.
The hall crossbeam has plain soffit-chamfers; it is probably mid C17. The inner
room fireplace is disused. The tight winder stair rising against the back wall at
the lower end of the hall is probably mid C17. The roof over the hall is carried on
some form of cruck; its shape shows but it is papered over. Other trusses are boxed
into the partitions. The roofspace is inaccessible but smoke-blackened roof timbers
are suspected.
These 2 cottages occupy an interesting late medieval house in one of the few
medieval boroughs in Devon where a high proportion of hall houses still survive.

Listing NGR: SX6524293474

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26611607

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

• 
  The Victorian House Manual (2nd Edition): How They Were Built, Improvements & Refurbishment, Solutions to All Common Defects - Includes Relevant ... ... Properties (Haynes Manual) (Haynes Manuals)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  Nottinghamshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Norfolk 1: Norwich and North-East: Norwich and North-east v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)