3, 4 And 5, Sowton Lane

SOWTON SOWTON LANE (west side) SX 99 SE 1/47 Nos. 3, 4 and 5 -

• II

3 cottages, formerly a single farmhouse. Earlv C17. remodelled and partially rebuilt in the C18, with C20 additions. Front wall and rear wing of brick, the right hand end and rear wall of roughcast cob on Heavitree stone footings: slate gabled-end roof. A 3-room plan house; the position of the original main entranceis uncertain, it was possibly a baffle-entry, the axial stack heating both the service end to the right and the hall to the left, with a stair to the rear of the stack opposite the entrance. Alternatively the entrance could have been between the hall and the left-hand room; a screen (now covered) between these rooms may mark an original through passage. If this last position is that of the original entrance, the hall stack would have been at the opposite end of the room tn the passage, which is also unusual in Devon. Left-hand external end stack. There is an C18 wing to the rear of the left-hand room. 2 storeys. Front: 4-window range: 3-light casement windows to first floor. with a later single light window in addition. No. 5 has a very unusual, and presumably C18, doorway, with a wide shouldered arch in brick. 3-light casement window to the left of this. Large C20 leanto porches to nos. 3 and 4. Extensive additions, all late C20, to the rear. Interior: the plank and muntin screen to no. 5 (noted by Dr Alcock) has been covered over. Nos. 3 and 4 not inspected : Dr Alcock notes a chamfered ceiling beam to the hall with scroll stops, and a chamfered fireplace lintel. with complex moulded jambs. The lintel and the beam above it are curved at the centre. N W Alcock, 'Houses in an East Devon Parish', Trans. Devon Assoc., 94 (1962), pp. 210-11: figs. 14 (plan) and 15 (hall fireplace): plate 13.

Listing NGR: SX9780992817