Delphinium Cottage

COTLEIGH HOLMSLEIGH GREEN ST 20 SW 11/13 Delphinium Cottage (East - Holmsleigh Cottage on O.S) - II Cottage, former farmhouse. Early - mid C17, possibly earlier core, modernised with an extension in the mid C20. Plastered local stone rubble, maybe with some cob; stone rubble stacks, one with its original Beerstone ashlar chimneyshaft with soffit-moulded coping; thatch roof. Plan and development: 3-room plan cottage built across a gentle hillslope and facing south-south-east, say south. The left (west) end room, the present kitchen, is unheated. The centre room is heated by an axial stack backing onto the unheated room. The right (east) end room is a gable-end stack and has a stair turret projecting square to rear. The left room is a C20 extension and the stack to the centre room may be a C20 insertion. The 2 rooms of the original house appear to be part of a larger house; probably the hall and inner room of a 3-room-and-through-passage plan house. The passage and service end room have been demolished. All the original features appear to date from a single early-mid C17 building phase. 2 storeys with a C20 porch on the west end and C20 outshots to rear. Exterior: regular but not symmetrical 3-window front with a small fourth first floor window. Most are C20 casements with glazing bars but the 2 right ground floor windows are early-mid C17 Beerstone ashlar 3-light windows with ovolo-moulded mullions, hoodmoulds and containing rectangular panes of leaded glass. At the right end there is an inserted doorway containing a C20 glazed door and contemporary hood. The roof is gable-ended. C20 porch and present main doorway in left (west) end wall. Interior: the centre room has a C17 crossbeam with deep chamfers and step stops. If there is an early fireplace here it is blocked by the C20 grate. The right room crossbeam is chamfered with scroll stops. Here there is a large fireplace with an oak-framed front and it contains an oven. The staircase is C20 but the turret is thought to be C17. The roof is early - mid Cl7; A-frame trusses with pegged dovetail-shaped lap-jointed collars.

Listing NGR: ST2060602838