Nos 1 And 2 Manor Cottages

Nos 1 and 2 Manor Cottages

A house divided into two cottages, dating from the mid-17th century and possibly a remodelling of a late medieval building. The structure is built of cob and stone, partly rendered and partly whitewashed and plastered, with a thatched roof featuring a plain ridge, hipped at the left end, gabled at the right end, and half-hipped at the end of the wing. Axial and right end stacks are both built of stone.

The overall plan is L-shaped, comprising a north-facing main block of three rooms with a through passage, a long lower end to the right, a hall stack backing onto the passage, and an unheated inner room to the left. A single-room unheated service wing adjoins the lower end at the rear, set at right angles to the main block. A projecting stair turret stands on the rear wall of the hall.

The plan presents unusual features: interior details suggest that both the hall and lower end rooms were high-quality parlours, making the position of the 17th-century kitchen unclear. The lower end, which had a fine first-floor chamber, possesses an apparently original entrance in the gable end wall. The building may have originated as a late medieval open hall, later floored, with the rear wing added in the 17th century. The stone cornice on the rear of the hall stack is characteristic of houses of open hall origin in the Teign Valley, and there is evidence of a former jetty.

The exterior is two storeys with an asymmetrical four-window front. Thatch is eyebrowed over the first-floor windows. A 20th-century gabled porch canopy protects the front door to the through passage, which retains a fine 17th-century panelled oak door with a timber hoodmould, strap hinges, and a moulded doorframe. The three ground-floor windows retain their timber hoodmoulds. The inner room window and lower end window are 17th-century ovolo-moulded mullioned windows, as are the four first-floor windows, all now glazed with 19th-century small-pane timber casements.

The right return has a thatched porch canopy to a gable end door into the lower end room. The 17th-century oak panelled door is similar to the front door and retains its original hinges. A first-floor window above this door is blocked; a three-light 17th-century ovolo-moulded mullioned window lights the first floor of the wing. The rear elevation has a good 17th-century oak panelled door to the through passage.

The interior contains many notable features. The rear of the hall stack is exposed in the passage, showing a stone cornice below the present ceiling level and a chamfered half beam with a bar stop. A plank and muntin screen at the lower end of the passage has moulded muntins and a blocked doorway to the lower end room. The hall features three fine elaborately-moulded crossbeams with bar nick stops, an open fireplace (the original lintel no longer exists), and a plank and muntin screen at the higher end with muntins moulded on the hall side. The ceiling beam arrangement suggests that the lower end passage may have jettied into an open hall before the hall was floored. A 20th-century stair against the rear wall has truncated one of the crossbeams.

The lower end room retains a chamfered stopped crossbeam and fragments of a 17th-century plaster cornice on the ground floor, with more extensive cornices on the first-floor chamber above. Two 17th-century floral motifs—either from an overmantel or decorated plaster ceiling—have been re-sited on one wall. The service wing also has a chamfered crossbeam and contains one first-floor chamfered stopped doorframe.

The roof construction over the higher end includes one 17th-century side-pegged jointed cruck. The other trusses, presumably contemporary, are of considerable interest: the principal rafters are halved onto wall posts, the simplified carpentry suggesting a late derivative of the jointed cruck. This represents a fine example of 17th-century joinery, as the wall posts are exposed; similar constructions may exist elsewhere but would normally appear as ordinary 'A' frames.

The house was occupied in the late 17th century by John Risdon, a relative of the historian Tristram Risdon. John Risdon's 'Commonplace Book', dated 1693–1699, contains entries relating to the farm.

This is a fine example of a high-quality 17th-century house with excellent external and internal features. The simplified jointed crucks are of particular architectural interest.