Tomaland

This is a house, likely dating to the early to mid-18th century, and later divided into two cottages. It’s located in St Germans. The house is constructed of slate rubble with cob eaves, originally probably thatched but now with a steeply pitched corrugated iron roof with gable ends. Brick has been added to the projecting gable end stacks at either end, with slate weathering.

The building's plan is either a two-room-plan house converted into a pair of single-room-plan cottages, or originally a pair of cottages. Straight staircases rise from the rear of each side of a central partition, with doorways at the front. Each room was originally heated by a gable end stack; the left-hand fireplace includes a blocked clom oven. The first floor rooms appear to be unheated. A full-width outshut was added in the late 18th or early 19th century, creating two shallow, unheated service rooms, likely during the conversion into cottages.

The two-storey exterior presents a near-symmetrical facade with widely spaced windows on both ground and first floors. These retain their original 18th or early 19th century two-light casements with glazing bars and L-shaped hinges on pintles. A small single-light window is present on the first floor to the left; a similar window on the right may have been blocked. All windows are set in original small openings with wood lintels and slate cills. Two doorways, originally flanking the centre, are present; the left-hand door is a 19th-century plank door, while the right-hand door has been removed, both with wrought iron hinge pintles. A 20th-century corrugated iron porch now encloses the doorways. A small single casement window with glazing bars is present in the left-hand gable end. The rear wall originally had no windows, but now features two doorways and a cupboard opening, likely added when the outshut was constructed. The rear outshut is built into the bank of the land and features small windows below the eaves. The lean-to roof of the outshut has been removed.

Inside, a plastered stud partition wall runs centrally. Only the right-hand section of the original straight staircases remains. The first floor is supported by closely spaced waney and slightly chamfered cross beams. The right-hand room’s fireplace has a cambered timber lintel, a late 19th century wooden surround, and a door to its clom oven. The left-hand room’s fireplace has a brick arch lintel and a blocked clom oven, with slate paving to the floors of both rooms. The roof space is ceiled, but the feet of the principal rafters are exposed in the first-floor rooms.

The building sits on a sloping site, with the ground level higher at the rear and to the right.