Cot Green Cottage

Cot Green Cottage is a house with Late Medieval origins, remodelled and possibly extended in the late 16th or early 17th century, with a 19th-century addition at the left end and repairs carried out in the late 1960s. It is constructed of whitewashed rendered cob on stone rubble footings, with some 19th-century brick to the left end addition and rear outshut. The roof is thatched with a plain ridge, half-hipped at the ends, and retains the remains of a front right corner stack with dismantled shaft and a left end stack with rendered shaft.

The house is south-facing and sits end-on to the lane. The present arrangement comprises a 3-room and through passage main range with an axial passage to the rear of the unheated centre room, from which an external stair rises. A 19th-century lean-to addition provides a fourth room at the left end, and there is a rear right outshut.

The evolution of the building is unusual, beginning with a 2-bay Medieval open hall house, rather than the more common 3-bay Medieval house found in Devon. A medieval doorframe in the partition between the two rooms indicates the open hall was divided into two by a low partition, with the entrance presumably into the room without the open hearth, probably the right-hand room. The hall was floored in the late 16th or early 17th century when a stack was added at the left end, involving the partial dismantling of the left end hip cruck. A stair was added in a rear projection at this time. The present through passage, at the right end of the Medieval house, may also date from this period. In the 17th century the right-hand end of the house was either added or remodelled from an existing single-storey building, creating a conventional unheated lower end room. The carpentry at this end is entirely elm, while the rest is oak. The rear outshut is partly 18th-century and partly earlier. The lower end room was subsequently heated by the addition of the corner stack and a Victorian stair, alterations that may be associated with the division of the house into two cottages. The date of the axial passage behind the centre room is unclear. 20th-century repair involved replacing the Victorian stair and altering the first floor windows, with a bay window added to the stair projection.

The exterior presents 2 storeys in an asymmetrical 3-window south front. The thatch is carried down as a catslide porch on posts to the through passage. A 20th-century half-glazed timber front door provides entry. Windows are 2- and 3-light 20th-century timber casements with 2 panes per light, with the eaves thatch eyebrowed over the first floor windows. A 20th-century half-glazed timber door serves the lean-to at the left end.

The interior is well-preserved, retaining 16th and 17th-century carpentry, old wall plaster and some original floorboards. The through passage features a chamfered stopped half beam to the lower side, exposed joists, and a plain plank and muntin screen to the higher side with a replaced sole plate and a 17th-century or earlier pegged doorframe to the rear door. The unheated centre room has exposed ceiling beams and a probably late Medieval partition with the left-hand room, consisting of planks formerly with wattle and daub sections between, and a massive shouldered doorframe exposed on the left-hand (west) side. The left-hand room contains a chamfered stopped crossbeam and a good open fireplace with chamfered Beerstone ashlar jambs and a bread oven. The right-hand room has a deeply chamfered crossbeam with step stops and a blocked mullioned window, apparently never glazed nor shuttered, opening into the outshut. Original oak treads and risers survive on the stair.

The roof retains the main truss of the Medieval structure: a side-pegged jointed cruck truss with a diagonally set ridge and peaked collar mortised into the principals, which are mortised at the apex. The right-hand (east) hip cruck is also intact with rafters, and a mortise in the ridge indicates the position of the former left end hip. The timbers are heavily sooted. The roof over the right-hand room is also of jointed cruck construction but with more rustic carpentry detail. A new roof has been added over the old timbers.

This is a traditional house of Medieval origins with interior features and an historic plan form of special interest, particularly the original 2-bay open hall.