Cott Inn

The Cott Inn is a public house of early 17th-century or earlier origins, remodelled probably in the later 17th century with subsequent alterations and extensions. It is constructed of white painted rendered stone rubble with possibly some cob. The roof is thatched, originally with gabled ends, though the extensions at either end now have pitched ends.

The building features roughcast stone rubble chimney stacks at the gable ends of the main range. The lower right stack sits on the ridge due to the extension at the right end. The stacks have tapered caps and slate weathering.

The original plan comprised three rooms and a through passage, with the lower end to the right (north) and a higher end room to the left, both heated by gable end stacks. There is no sign of a hall stack, though a lateral stack may have been removed. Alternatively, an unheated central room may have existed. The higher left end room contains stone newel stairs to the right of the gable end stack. A probably later 17th-century extension at the lower right end includes stone newel stairs in a turret on the front at the junction with the original house. This addition appears to have been extended again, possibly in the 18th century, and the higher left end was also extended by one room, possibly in the 18th century, to form one long range.

The exterior is two storeys. The east front presents an irregular approximately 10-window range, with some first floor windows breaking the eaves with eyebrows in the thatch. Most windows are 19th and 20th-century two and three-light casements with glazing bars, though the ground floor east window is older and has four lights. To the left of centre, a blocked doorway of the former through passage retains its old wooden frame. To the right and left of the original range, two 20th-century gabled porches with slate roofs serve doorways inserted into the higher and lower end rooms. To the right of centre, at the junction with the lower right end extension, a semi-circular stair turret is positioned over which the main thatched roof is carried. The rear west elevation, possibly originally the front, retains its small windows, mostly 19th-century two-light casements with glazing bars. Near the right end, a doorway with a 19th-century plank door and large canopy carries the thatch of the main roof down over it, with a stone mounting block immediately to its right. At the far right end of the west front sits a small projection with a rounded corner and thatched roof.

Internally, only a section survives of the plank and muntin screen between the former central room and higher left room, featuring scratch moulded and chamfered muntins. The partitions either side of the former passage have been removed and its front and rear doorways blocked. Any other partitions associated with an unheated central room have also been removed, and a 20th-century public house bar has been built in the central room. The fireplace at the higher end has a chamfered timber lintel with mutilated, probably step stops, and probably an oven, now blocked. Stone newel stairs to the right of the stack rise from the room behind the stack at the lower end. The closely spaced cross-beams are roughly hewn. On the west, originally front wall of the central room, a small blocked window with a wooden frame and diagonally set vertical bar is visible.

The roof space over the higher end contains straight principals with lapped joints. Other principals are visible in the first floor rooms with straight feet embedded into the tops of the walls.