Woodcott Woodicott

Woodcott (or Woodicott) is a house, now divided into two cottages, located in Dartington. The building dates from approximately the mid-16th century, possibly with earlier origins, and has undergone several phases of alteration and extension. It was rearranged and extended in the early 17th century, extended again in the later 17th century, and further extended and divided into two separate cottages during the 18th or early 19th century.

The structure is built of local limestone and slate rubble with a slate roof featuring gabled ends. Early crested ridge tiles remain on the main roof. The rear pitch of the main roof and the hipped roof of the front wing are clad in asbestos slates. Stone rubble stacks with tapered tops and slate weathering are positioned at the left-hand gable end, as a rear lateral stack now enclosed within a lean-to, and as an axial stack in the front right-hand wing.

The building follows a two-storey, three-room and through-passage plan with the lower end to the left. The hall is heated from a rear lateral stack. The relatively large inner room to the right is unheated, though the chamber above is heated from a gable-end fireplace. The lower end room contains a gable-end fireplace with an oven, which may represent the original kitchen arrangement. Alternatively, the hall may originally have served as the kitchen before being relocated to the lower end during early 17th-century remodelling. This remodelling included the addition of a shallow two-storey wing at the back of the lower end, incorporating an integral and relatively large stair turret behind the passage. The shallow wing contains an unheated ground-floor room, probably the pantry or dairy. Later in the 17th century, an unheated outshut was added to the back of the hall and inner room, accessed from the hall. Around the 18th century, a single-storey, one-room wing was added to the front of the inner room. This front wing was raised to two storeys, probably in the 19th century, at which point the house was divided into two cottages: one occupying the inner room and front wing, and the other occupying the hall and lower end.

The exterior presents two storeys with an asymmetrical three-window range plus one window in the projecting wing at the right end. To the left of centre, a first-floor window sits within a small slate-hung gable. Most windows are 19th and 20th-century three-light casements with glazing bars, except the first-floor window to the left, which is a 20th-century two-light casement, and the first-floor window to the right of centre, which retains an 18th-century frame. Various wooden lintels are present, including a chamfered example on the first-floor window to the left of centre. The hall window to the right of centre has a flat stone arch with dripcourse. The passage doorway to the left of centre features a heavy chamfered timber lintel and original timber doorframe with chamfered segmental arch and jambs, with a 19th-century plank door. Immediately to the right of the doorway stands a large masonry raking buttress with weathering. The front wall of the hall to the right of the buttress is set back slightly and may have been rebuilt.

The rear elevation displays twin gabled wings to the right: the larger right-hand wing containing the dairy and the smaller wing containing the stair tower, with the hall lateral stack positioned at the angle to the left, now enclosed within a lean-to featuring a catslide roof. The lean-to has a large 20th-century window with concrete lintel. The dairy has no rear windows. The stair tower has a late 19th-century two-light casement and a small single-light window almost at ground level, which is higher at the rear than the ground level at the front. The higher gable end to the right (north-east) has two small late 19th-century two-light casements, possibly in older frames, with timber lintels. A small single-light slit window and two small windows appear to the right in the end wall of the lean-to outshut. Straight masonry joints are visible between the main range and rear outshut, and between the main range and front wing on the higher right end wall. Disturbed masonry appears at the lower south-west end between the main range and the dairy wing. Small windows at the south-west end facing the road are late 19th and 20th-century casements.

The interior features a hall with a chamfered cross-beam with bar stops and large closely-spaced, deeply chamfered joists with step stops. The rear lateral fireplace has a timber lintel with ovolo-moulded run-out stops, rebuilt stone rubble jambs, and no oven. A chamfered head beam with bar stops sits over the half-passage screen. The plank and muntin screen at the higher end of the hall is covered on the hall side but shows unchamfered muntins on the inner room side, with a chamfered head-beam featuring hollow step stops. The inner room has an unchamfered half beam on the gable-end wall and later slightly chamfered joists. The screen between the lower left-hand room and the passage appears to have been replaced with no solid wall. The relatively small lower end room contains a cross-beam with hollow step stops; the gable-end fireplace is partly blocked by a small 20th-century fireplace, though the earlier oven projects into the former dairy at the rear. The door frame between the hall and rear outshut is chamfered with carpenter's mitres and has bar and hollow step stops. Wooden newel stairs (renewed) occupy the stair turret, with a chamfered doorframe at the top leading into the chamber over the hall. The front wing has a large fireplace with an unchamfered timber lintel and ceiling joists with slight chamfers.

The roof comprises six clean trusses with straight principals, morticed collars (missing), morticed open and two tiers of threaded purlins, and a diagonally set trenched ridge. Most rafters remain intact. The truss over the hall/passage screen is a closed truss. The stair turret retains its original roof with a morticed apex to the principals. The roof over the shallow rear wing has a morticed apex joint to the principal rafters, which have mortices for threaded purlins. The lean-to roof over the rear outshut has some renewed principal rafters with mortices for threaded purlins. Some of the main roof purlins appear to be blocked and may therefore be reused from an earlier roof.