Newcombes Cottages The Old Smithy

Newcombes Cottages and The Old Smithy are two cottages dating from the late 17th century, which were modernised in the mid and late 20th century. They are built of plastered cob on rubble footings, with stone rubble or cob stacks topped with 20th-century brick. The roofs are thatched, with corrugated asbestos covering the outshots.

These adjoining cottages have a two-room plan and face south, featuring end stacks and a stack in the party wall between them. Newcombes Cottage, on the left (west), is slightly larger than The Old Smithy. Both cottages have secondary or rebuilt outshots at the rear. The front elevation has two storeys and consists of five windows overall, with three in Newcombes Cottage and two in The Old Smithy. The windows include a mix of 19th and 20th-century casements with glazing bars, and The Old Smithy features a 20th-century curving bay window at the right end.

Each cottage has a central door and porch; Newcombes Cottage has a glazed porch with a gabled thatch roof, while The Old Smithy has a plank door with a monopitch porch roof covered in concrete tiles. The roof is gable-ended on the right and hipped on the left.

The interior of Newcombes Cottage was inspected and shows evidence of 20th-century modernisation. The left room contains a late 17th-century crossbeam that is untidily soffit-chamfered with straight-out stops. Both fireplaces in this room are blocked by 20th-century grates, and there is a large chimney stack made of cob that occupies the full depth of the roof hip. The roof space is not accessible.