19, 20 and 21, Dean Street

Three houses at 19, 20, and 21 Dean Street likely originated in the 17th century or earlier, and were probably subdivided and remodelled in the early 19th century as artisan cottages. The walls are rendered cob, built on footings of local volcanic stone rubble. The roof is pantiled, with three rear lateral stacks (one dating to the 20th century) and a stack to the right end with brick shafts.

The original plan may have been a three-room and cross-passage layout, with a lower service end to the left (number 19). Rear additions were probably added later. The asymmetrical front has a two-window, one-window, two-window arrangement. Number 19 has a 19th-century flush panel front door to the left, and two late 19th or early 20th century three-light timber casement windows with glazing bars to the ground and first floors. Number 20 has one similar casement to the ground floor and one to the first, along with a boarded passageway door to the left, and a plank front door to the right. Number 21 is double-fronted with a 19th-century panelled front door, a nine-pane fixed window to the ground floor left, and three-light casements with glazing bars to the ground and first floors.

The interior has not been inspected, but may contain earlier features, and an early roof structure may survive. The houses escaped the Crediton fire of 1743. They have modestly-scaled but attractive urban cottage frontages that conceal an earlier building campaign.