The Thatched Cottage

The Thatched Cottage is a house dating back to the early 16th century, with significant remodelling and extensions from the early 17th century. It is constructed of cob, with some stone rubble facings, and has a thatched roof, hipped at the left end and gabled to the right. A stone stack with a brick shaft rises at the right end, and a lateral stack with a brick shaft is at the rear.

The house follows an L-shaped plan, consisting of a three-room and cross-passage main range (with the lower end to the right) and an unheated rear wing set at a right angle to the inner room. Originally, this may have been a late medieval open hall house, potentially extending from end to end, although conclusive evidence of a smoke-blackened lower end is lacking. The hall was later floored, with a lateral stack added in the late 16th century. The lower end room likely served as a kitchen in the 17th century. A small, unheated inner room is present, alongside an early 17th century unheated rear wing. Currently, there are two entrances: one into the former cross passage, and another into a small lobby partitioned off from the rear of the inner room, containing a winder staircase. A rear left outshut extends from the main range.

The front facade is asymmetrical, with four windows. A 20th-century rustic porch with a thatched roof sits in the former cross passage. Small, 2- and 3-light 20th-century casement windows are visible. A similar thatched rustic porch is on the left return, with two 2-light casements to the left. The rear outshut has a tiled roof.

Inside, the hall retains a late 16th century deep, hollow-chamfered, step-stopped cross beam and exposed joists, with an open fireplace and a timber lintel. Doorframes in the cross passage and entrance lobby feature cranked heads and carved spandrels. The lower end room has replaced cross beams and joists, and an open fireplace containing a bread oven, and possibly a former curing chamber. The rear left wing displays a 17th-century cross beam with chamfered, scroll stops, and exposed joists.

The roof structure includes three jointed cruck trusses. The two left-hand trusses are smoke-blackened, with sooted rafters, battens and thatch remaining behind the ridge; a closed partition is present in the roof space to the right of the central truss. The lower end truss may also have been sooted but has been painted, with a replacement collar and king post. A ground plan and description by Charles Hulland, dated 1978, is deposited in the West Country Studies Library. This is a traditional, evolving house situated on a corner site in Shillingford.