Newcott Virginia Cottage

Newcott and Virginia Cottage

Two adjoining cottages, originally one house, situated in the village of Broadhembury. The building has late medieval origins and was remodelled in the later 16th or early 17th century. The date of subdivision into two cottages is unknown, though some 20th century alteration of internal partitions has occurred. The exterior is rendered cob and stone with a cream wash, and the roof is thatched with a plain ridge and gables at both ends (Virginia Cottage probably originally had a hipped roof at the right end).

The building is two storeys, with a single depth south-facing main range. Newcott occupies the left (west) side with two rooms wide and a central entrance facing a staircase. Virginia Cottage occupies the right (east) side, also two rooms wide, with a staircase rising against the rear wall from the right hand room. The asymmetrical five-window front has eyebrowed eaves thatch over four first floor windows. Newcott has a 20th century plank and stud estate door in the centre with a slated porch hood, flanked by 3-light 20th century timber casements with glazing bars. The right hand window was converted from the original front door to the through passage. Virginia Cottage has a 20th century estate plank and stud front door to the right of centre with a slate door hood carried over as a pentice to a 1-light 20th century casement to the left with square leaded panes. Two windows to the left are 20th century timber casements with glazing bars. A first floor dormer to Newcott is glazed with a pair of 2-light 20th century casements with square leaded panes. Virginia Cottage has three first floor dormers glazed with 20th century casements with square leaded panes. A semi-circular bread oven survives on the left return of Newcott. Stacks are positioned at the left end and axially, with brick shafts.

Internally, the cottages retain important medieval features. The original building was a medieval open hall with smoke-blackened medieval timbers surviving in Virginia Cottage. It is unclear whether Newcott also rose open to the roof timbers or whether the lower end, constructed of jointed cruck, was always storeyed. The open hall was floored in the late 16th or early 17th century. The hall stack originally backed onto the passage at the position of the present axial stack, which appears to be a 20th century replacement with a smaller chimney breast and staggered fireplaces.

The lower end of the original house probably functioned as the kitchen in the 17th century, evidenced by a large bread oven. The inner room has never been heated. Virginia Cottage was the higher end, originally consisting of a hall and inner room. Newcott contains remnants of the through passage, with blocked opposed doors and the headbeam of a plank and muntin screen in situ. The lower side partition of the through passage has been moved and the screen has been re-sited on the right hand wall of the 17th century kitchen.

The interior is rich in carpentry. The left hand room of Newcott has a chamfered stopped crossbeam and a re-sited plank and muntin screen with chamfered stopped muntins. The right hand room retains the head beam of the re-sited screen, formerly the lower side passage partition. Virginia Cottage has deeply-chamfered crossbeams with step stops. A half-beam of the same design about half a metre in front of the left end wall suggests that a larger stack has been removed and replaced with the present chimney.

The roof contains side pegged jointed cruck trusses with feet descending to the ground, surviving in both houses. The apex of the roof was inspected only in Virginia Cottage, where smoke-blackening is visible. The ridge is diagonally-set and the end of a hip cruck is visible at the right end of Virginia Cottage.

The building is of medieval origin and of especial interest both as part of a very unspoilt estate village and as one of eight closely-spaced surviving medieval houses in a village context.