Millside Cottage

Millside Cottage is a late 18th- to early 19th-century house, originally two cottages, that was thoroughly renovated around 1975. It is located on the Green in Otterton, at the western end of a row of contemporary cottages. The house is constructed of plastered cob on stone rubble footings, with stone rubble or brick stacks topped with 19th-century brick. One stack is topped with Rolle estate chimney pots, and the roof is thatched, with pantiles to the outshots at the rear.

Originally a 3-room plan cottage facing north onto the Green, the right (western) end room is a later addition. The central room has an axial stack to the right, and the original left room has an end stack in the party wall shared with the adjoining cottage, No. 15. There were originally 2-storey outshots to the rear of the centre and left rooms, though these have been rebuilt. A kitchen outshot originally served the rear of the left room, backed by a stack onto the main block. The house was divided into two cottages at one point, one occupying the left room and kitchen outshot, and the other the remaining two front rooms. It is now combined into a single dwelling.

The original part of the house has a symmetrical 3-window front with 19th-century casement windows, most with rectangular panes of leaded glass, except for the central first-floor casement which has glazing bars. A central doorway features a 19th-century 4-panel door with a monopitch hood supported by shaped brackets. An identical door and hood are located immediately to the right, with another casement window with leaded glass to the right of that. A painted window is present on the first floor. The roof is gable-ended to the right and continues with the roof of No. 15 to the left.

The interior largely reflects the circa 1975 modernisation, with blocked fireplaces and a first floor now supported by boxed-in RSJs. The roof was not inspected. Millside Cottage is part of an attractive row of cottages near St Michael's Church and Otterton Mill, representing an unusual combination of vernacular cob and thatch with more refined 19th-century detailing on the doorways and some of the windows.