Southbrook Cottages

Three cottages at Southbrook Lane, Bovey Tracey, probably the remnants of one or two former farmhouses linked to form a single range. The buildings date from the 17th century with later additions.

The structure is built of cob and stone covered with roughcast, with a thatched roof that is half-hipped at the right-hand end. The right half of No. 1 is a later addition, built directly onto the thatched half-hipped roof of the original building, which is visible in the roof-space. The central ridge chimneystack has a thick rendered stone base on the right with an added rendered brick shaft above, and on the left a rendered brick shaft, probably a later addition. The left-hand gable of No. 3 contains another chimneystack with a thick rendered base, probably of stone, with an added rendered brick shaft above on the right and a rendered brick shaft, probably a later addition, on the left.

The buildings are two storeys tall, with single-storey additions at the rear and at the left-hand end. The front presents five windows in total. No. 2 together with the left-hand half of No. 1 probably originally formed a detached 2-room lobby-entry plan house. The left-hand half of No. 3 appears to have been a separate 17th-century building, later linked to No. 2. It now contains only one ground-storey room with a stack in the left-hand gable, though the quality of its fireplace detail suggests it may originally have extended further to the left.

The centre section, comprising No. 2 and the left-hand half of No. 1, is two widely-spaced windows wide. At ground-storey level in the centre is a metal-framed 20th-century window, formerly the doorway to the lobby entry. To the left is a 20th-century glazed door. To the right is a late 19th or early 20th-century wood casement of two lights, each of eight panes. In the second storey are two wood casements with gables above, the thatch swept over them; the left-hand casement has two plain lights, and the right-hand casement matches the one below and has a wooden board inscribed "1764" in old lettering.

The right-hand side of No. 1, set back slightly, has a 20th-century plank door divided into upper and lower sections. To the right is a small four-pane wood casement window. There are no second-storey windows, but in the gable is a wood casement window of two lights, each with six panes. No. 3 is two windows wide. A 20th-century glazed door is positioned off-centre to the right and is approached by a flight of four old granite steps; a 20th-century thatched porch on two wooden poles stands before it. To the left is a 19th-century wood casement of three lights, each with three panes. To the right is a 20th-century wood casement of six panes with a transom-light. Two second-storey windows are 19th-century wood casements of two lights, each light with two panes.

No. 1 contains a fireplace in the left-hand ground-storey wall with a chamfered wood lintel (stops mutilated) and plain granite jambs. A newel staircase stands to the right of it, beside the chimneystack. Two cupboards have good 19th-century panelled doors with original metal fittings. The roof structure of the older part, designed for thatch, has no principal rafters nor even pairs of common rafters; each common rafter is supported by a strut, with thick spars laid across the rafters to carry the thatch.

No. 3 has a thick battered wall between its two rooms on both ground and second storeys. The right-hand wall of the right-hand ground-storey room is cob on a heavy battered stone plinth and is probably the original gable-end of the lobby-entry house. In the left-hand ground-storey room in the gable is a large fireplace with a chamfered wood lintel featuring scroll-stops with two notches. The roof, probably 19th-century, has common rafters without principals.

No. 2 was not inspected internally.