Leonard Moor Cottages

BURLESCOMBE ST 01 SE 9/10 Nos 1 and 2 Leonard Moor Cottages - - II Pair of cottages, part once used as a toll house. Circa 1810, possibly enlarged circa 1840. Local stone rubble with larger dressed quoins, part is pebbledash with exposed rusticated quoins, some other stone ashlar detail; stone rubble stacks topped with C19 brick, one of them plastered; slate roof. Plan: pair of roadside cottages facing north-west onto the road. The main block has a 5-room plan overall, the outer pairs of rooms heated by axial stacks between serving back-to-back fireplaces. Central front 2-storey porch. No.1 is the right- hand cottage and has a 3-room plan and includes the porch. No. 2 to the left, has a 2-room plan. The evidence is not clear but it may be that the outer end rooms are secondary and that there was originally a 3-room plan cottage here. Both cottages are 2 storeys. Exterior: the main front is blind and dominated by the gabled porch. This has an ashlar round-headed outer arch with projecting keystone, and it now contains a C20 plank door with strap hinges. Directly above is a Hamstone plaque inscribed "COMMON INCLOSED 1810", and above this a painted (probably stone) gothic-style 3-light window with a trefoil-beaded lights, sunken spandrels and hoodmould. The front here is a crazy paving effect of water-rolled stones and includes a more or less symmetrical pattern of geological specimens. Either side is pebbledashed with exposed quoins and containing a ground floor lancet. The pebbledash continues each side across the first bay of the main block ending at a vertical band of rusticated quoins. Each of these bays contains a blind oculus defined by rusticated quoins and blocked with a round boulder. The rear wall contains the windows and doorways. It is a nearly symmetrical 5-window front overall of C19 and C20 replacement casements containing rectangular panes of glass. Both doors are C20, that in No. 1 in the central porch. Interior: not inspected. This is an interesting and idiosyncratic building. It was probably erected 1810-11 by Richard Hall Clarke of Bridwell following the enclosure of Leonard Moor. Source: Devon SMR.

Listing NGR: ST0519013164