Rosemary Cottage

Rosemary Cottage is an early 17th-century house, originally a single dwelling but divided into two cottages around 1975 and remodelled circa 1975. It is constructed of plastered cob on stone rubble footings, with cob stacks topped with plastered 20th-century brick and a thatched roof. A former rear coach house, of plastered brick with a tile roof, is also part of the property.

The main L-shaped block faces south-east onto Fore Street and comprises a two-room plan with gable-end stacks. The eastern room is larger than the western room, and a through passage was likely situated on the left side of the crosswall. The present staircase rises across the rear wall of the left room, but the original staircase was probably alongside the fireplace in the right room. A two-room block is located at a right angle behind the right room; the smaller inner room may be 17th century, while the outer room was built in the 19th century as a coach house, now incorporated into the living space.

The building has two storeys and an irregular three-window front featuring 20th-century replacement casement windows with glazing bars. There are two front doorways, one leading into each former cottage. The original doorway, now left of centre, has a 20th-century stable-type door and a contemporaneous trellis porch. A secondary doorway, right of centre, has a 20th-century glazed door.

The interior largely reflects the circa 1975 modernisation, but the main fabric of the early 17th-century house is remarkably intact. The roof, divided into three bays by full-height oak-framed crosswalls (now plastered over), supports crossbeams and half-beams with soffit-chamfered step stops. The fireplace of the right room was originally cob and was rebuilt around 1976 in brick, retaining the soffit-chamfered oak lintel. The fireplace of the left room is blocked and presumed to be a kitchen fireplace. The main roof truss over the right room is a side-pegged jointed cruck. The roofspace is inaccessible, and the roof is thought to be in good condition. Rosemary Cottage is a single-phase early 17th-century house of modest proportions, representing an interesting survival of its type, and is one of several attractive listed buildings along Otterton Fore Street.