Coltsfoot Farmhouse

Coltsfoot Farmhouse is an early 17th-century farmhouse built of plastered cob on rubble footings with stone rubble and cob stacks topped with 19th and 20th-century brick, and a thatch roof. The building is of grade II* significance.

The main block faces south and follows a 2-room-and-through-passage plan across 2 storeys. The larger western room serves as the kitchen with an end stack. The eastern room is a parlour with an axial stack backing onto the passage. A service wing projects to the rear at right angles, with a now-disused projecting end stack. The front elevation is irregular, with three windows. Late 19th-century casements with glazing bars flank the central doorway, and a small fixed pane window at the left end contains rectangular panes of leaded glass. All first floor windows retain early 17th-century oak 3-light frames with ovolo-moulded mullions. The roughly central doorway stands beneath an original oak lintel with ovolo-moulding and scroll steps, though it now contains a 20th-century door. The roof is gable-ended with blind ends; the left end leans considerably outward and is propped by a 20th-century buttress. A rear passage doorway retains its original lintel and oak frame with chamfered surround, though it is now blocked by a 20th-century window. The gable end of the service wing has a 20th-century doorway breaking through the disused stack. On the ground floor to the right is an original oak 3-light window with chamfered mullions containing early, if not original, thin rectangular panes of leaded glass and a central iron casement. The outer eastern side of the service wing features similar 3-light windows on both ground and first floors, with only their central casements containing leaded glass.

The interior is remarkably complete and very little modernised. The kitchen side of the passage features an oak plank-and-muntin screen with chamfered muntins and scroll stops, containing an original plank door with chamfered cover strips, strap hinges, and oak lock housing. The kitchen has a pitched cobble floor and a soffit-chamfered and scroll-stopped crossbeam. A large rubble fireplace with cob stack contains a large oak lintel with ovolo soffit-moulding and scroll stops; an oven in the left side is now lined with 19th-century brick. To the right of the fireplace is an oak doorframe with chamfered and scroll-stopped surround to the original oak-framed newel stair. Both the doorway and cupboard under the stairs retain original plank doors. To the rear of the passage is a lobby containing a 20th-century rebuilt newel stair and access to the parlour and service block. The lobby-parlour partition is an oak plank-and-muntin screen with muntins chamfered and scroll-stopped on both sides. The parlour has a 20th-century tile floor said to cover an original pitched cobble floor featuring a Tudor rose motif picked out in white stones. The crossbeam has an ovolo soffit-moulding with scroll stops. The oak lintel of the volcanic ashlar fireplace receives the same treatment. The fireplace has an inserted late 19th-century oven. The window lintel is soffit-chamfered with scroll stops. The end wall features an oak bench with an early 17th-century oak wainscotted back comprising small field panelling with continuously moulded rails and moulded muntins with central recessed strips. The doorframe from the lobby to the service block has an ovolo-moulded surround with chamfered scroll stops and lozenges carved on the chamfers. The service block contains a chamfered and late-stepped axial beam. Its fireplace is blocked and the lintel is cut through by a 20th-century doorway. From the stair head, original doorways lead to chambers over the service room and parlour. The parlour chamber has a small hooded fireplace with shaped oak corbels and an oak lintel with ovolo soffit-moulding and scroll stops. The roofspace is inaccessible, but the feet of large neatly-squared oak principals suggest that the A-frames are early 17th-century and the original roof structure is complete. High ceilings extending to collar level are also probably original.

According to the owners, the deeds date back to 1574. However, the plan and carpentry detail, notably the widespread use of scroll stops, suggest an early 17th-century date. No scroll stops in Devon can conclusively be dated earlier than 1600. Coltsfoot is a remarkably well-preserved small farmhouse, rich in original detail and unusual for Devon in being a single-period build.