Damerosehay Cottage

EXMINSTER DAYS LANE SX 98 NW

4/43 Damerosehay Cottage -

GV II

House. Circa early C18 remodelling of an earlier house, C20 renovations. Whitewashed rendered cob; thatched roof hipped at ends; front lateral stack with brick shaft, axial stack, small brick stack at left end. Present plan single depth, 3 rooms wide with an unusually large hall to the left heated from the lateral stack, a small unheated room in the middle and a right hand room heated from the axial stack, entrance directly into unheated room. The plan may be an early C18 arrangement with the hall to the left and kitchen to the right of an unheated service room but there is evidence that it is a remodelling of an earlier, possibly C16 building. The right hand end of the house is probably an early C18 addition, the 2 left hand rooms could originally have been part of a 3 room and passage plan building. 2 storeys. Asymmetrical 5 window front, the eaves thatch eyebrowed over the first floor windows. Approximately central thatched porch with front door leading into the middle room. First floor windows 2-light C19 or C20 casements, 6 panes per light; ground floor windows late C20 casements with leaded panes, slight change in roofline at axial stack. Interior: The middle room has a probably C16 deeply chamfered cross beam with diagonal stops. The hall, to the left, has 2 chamfered cross beams and exposed joists, some of the joists are replacements. Both cross beams appear to have mortises on the soffit. The fireplace has C20 stone rubble jambs and a plain timber lintel in front of an earlier fireplace with a large timber lintel. A recess on the front wall adjacent to the fireplace may originally have been a doorway. The right hand room has 2 axial beams, 1 rough-hewn and 1 chamfered. No access to roofspace at time of survey (1985), the principal rafters visible in the first floor rooms appear to be straight. Lower Towsington is one of several early farmhouses off Days Lane.

Listing NGR: SX9360287286