Oak Ash And Thorn Including A Raised Pavement In Front

Oak Ash and Thorn is a house that may have originally been divided into two cottages before being reunited. It dates back to the early 17th century and is built from coursed local rubble, with the upper sections of the walls made of cob. The roof is half-hipped and thatched with straw, featuring a large rubble lateral stack at the front, with a 20th-century brick shaft.

The house has a three-room-and-through-passage plan, with the lower end on the left appearing to have been unheated. The central hall has the lateral stack at the front, and the inner room also seems unheated. A 19th-century outshut has been added to the right end, and there are no additions at the rear. In the 19th century, the house was divided into two cottages: the left cottage occupied the passage and lower room, extending with an addition at the lower end, while the right cottage included the hall and inner room, with its entrance into the inner room and a small lean-to outbuilding added at the right end. The house was later reunited into a single dwelling.

The exterior of the house is two storeys high and asymmetrical, with three windows on the left and two on the right. The 19th-century windows are two- and three-light casements with wood lintels and horizontal glazing bars, except for a 18th-century three-light casement on the first floor to the left, which has an iron casement and square-paned leaded lights. There is a 19th-century two-light casement in the outshut. The principal door opens into the through-passage to the left of centre and features an old plank door with covering strips and a heavy wooden frame. A 20th-century door has been inserted into the inner room to the right, and there is a broad doorway with paired plank doors leading to the outshut. The rear elevation has 19th-century casements.

The raised pavement at the front consists of a pitched stone causeway with larger stones forming a curb and a rubble retaining wall. Inside, there is a hall fireplace with a wooden bressumer and a bread oven, along with remnants of a former screen flanking the higher side of the through-passage, which has a doorway with a four-centred arched head that is now partially blocked. The roof is from the 18th century. This house is an attractive traditional Devon dwelling located in an important roadside position.