Free Cottages is a Grade II listed building in the Exeter local planning authority area, England. First listed on 23 June 2000. A Victorian Cottage. 1 related planning application.
Free Cottages
- WRENN ID
- noble-rubblework-magpie
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- Exeter
- Constituency
- Exeter MP: Steve Race (Lab)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 23 June 2000
- Type
- Cottage
- Period
- Victorian
- Address
- Free Cottages, 41 and 42, Mount Dinham, EX4 4EB
- OS grid reference
- SX 915 926
- Coordinates
- 50.72342, -3.53777
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
Free Cottages are a pair of cottages built in 1862 as part of a group for the elderly, funded by William Gibbs. They are constructed of red brick with painted stone dressings and feature a slate roof, brick chimney stacks, and cast iron rainwater goods, all in a Tudor style.
The cottages are located on a bluff overlooking the River Exe, grouped with a school and church, also funded by Gibbs. Positioned at the entrance to this complex and visible from Dinham Road, they exhibit more architectural detail than the other buildings in the group. The two units are accessed from the sides.
The cottages are two storeys tall, with openings framed in painted stone and quoined jambs. The front is asymmetrical, featuring gables with deep eaves and pierced curly bargeboards. The left gable has a half dormer with a one-light window above a Tudor-arched doorway, while the right gable has a broad projecting bay with a two-light window above a parapetted canted bay window. There is a similar doorway on the right side.
The interior has not been inspected but may contain interesting features. Historically, the site was purchased by John Dinham to prevent it from becoming a fairground. Gibbs, who was born in Exeter and became a banker after working as a guano merchant, has an effigy in St Michael's Church nearby. This pair of cottages is part of an important Victorian complex of philanthropic buildings designed together.
Local climate
Free Cottages receives an average of 840 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 57% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 72% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 19 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 80% of listed buildings. Of these, 7 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
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- Full EPC report — heating system, energy costs, size, glazing, construction etc.
- No sale records on file
- Related listed building consents — 1 application
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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