Lower Cobbaton And The Cottage Including Outbuilding To Rear

Lower Cobbaton and The Cottage is a Grade II* listed farmhouse, now divided into two separate dwellings, located at Swimbridge. The building probably dates to the late 15th or early 16th century with substantial late 17th-century remodelling and extension.

The house is constructed of painted rendered stone and cob, with a thatch roof featuring gable ends. The roof structure is supported by chimneys of considerable architectural interest: a tall lateral hall stack with offsets and twin projecting bread ovens with slated caps, a tall brick stack at the right end, and a tall rubble stack with offsets heightened in brick at the left end.

The building follows a 3-room cross-passage plan, with the hall and cross-passage partition now removed (formerly open to the roof). The house probably had flooring inserted during the 16th or 17th century, with an additional parlour added at the front left end in the 17th century, creating an overall L-shaped plan. It rises to 2 storeys.

The main range displays a 4-window range on the upper storey. These comprise, from left to right: a 17th-century splayed mullion window with 6-paned leaded casement to the left-hand light, a 19th-century 2-light casement with 4 panes per light to the left of the stack, a 4-light window with 2 panes per light, and a small 2-light casement with 2 panes per light at the right end. The ground floor contains a 17th-century 3-light mullion window with 2 panes per light to the left of the cross-passage doorway, which has a 5-plank door. The hall window of 3 lights with 2 panes per light has been pushed out in line with the stack and features a slated canopy. A 2-light casement with 2 panes per light is positioned to the right. Across the angle of the main range and wing at the left end is a pantiled porch over a plank door to the wing. To its left are two 17th-century ovolo mullion windows: an upper 3-light window with leaded lights of 6 panes and a lower 4-light window with 2 panes per light, both featuring iron stanchions. The gable end of the wing has an inserted 2-light window with 4 pigeon holes to the left above a 2-light casement with 2 panes per light. An infilled mullion window to a stair turret at the rear of the hall survives, with an integral thatched dairy outshut to its left.

The interior retains many 17th-century features. Both the inner room and principal room to the wing have moulded plaster ceilings of late 17th-century date, each featuring a large central roundel with corner pieces and moulded cornices. In the inner room, the plaster cornice follows the angle of the chimneypiece, which is set across the top right corner. The majority of door surrounds have scroll-stopped durns with old plank or panelled doors. Two flights of stairs serve the stair turret at the rear of the hall, and a single flight serves the wing, all with original treads. A double creamery occupies the rear wall of the hall. The hall beam carries a scratched cross stop to its ovolo moulding, and a plain chamfer runs to the probable bressumer at the jettied end. Large cloam and brick-lined bread ovens flank each side of the hall fireplace.

The structural timbers reveal the building's long history. Lower Cobbaton contains two raised cruck trusses with morticed and tenoned collars, two tiers of threaded purlins, and a ridge purlin. The entire underside of these timbers, including rafters and thatch roof covering, shows extremely heavy smoke blackening, as do the solid cob partitions to the gable end of the inner room and the lower end of the cross-passage, which rises to the apex of the roof. This cross-passage partition acts as a further truss, carrying purlins to the gable wall. The roof space of The Cottage is not accessible, so it is unknown whether the smoke blackening extends the full length of the main range. A single heavy truss supports the roof structure of the wing, which retains traces of moulded plasterwork to its cornice.

The outbuilding to the rear, now used as a studio and formerly a barn, is constructed of rubble stone with a thatch roof. It is rectangular on plan and rises to 2 storeys.

This building was subject to a minor amendment to its listing on 12 March 2015 and was formerly recorded as Cob Cottage and The Cottage including outbuilding to rear.