18-20, THE PARADE

A group of three estate cottages, dating from circa 1909, designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens for the Duke of Bedford as part of the planned village centre of Milton Abbot. The cottages are constructed of Hurdwick stone rubble, with a slate hipped roof which sweeps down to stone corbelled eaves courses, broken by hipped half-dormers. Aquirky feature is the way the hipped ends of the roof are brought down to a lower level than the front and rear eaves, creating a noticeable break in the slating near the hips. There are two short stone stacks on the ridge and stone stacks at the ends. The cottages form an L-shaped block, with one cottage facing south and two facing west. The architectural style is vernacular revival, continuing the character of numbers 14-17 nearby. The west front, which has six windows, is symmetrical. Front doors feature chamfered stopped architraves and integral rectangular fanlights, each sheltered by a flat canopy supported by moulded timber brackets. The central ground floor windows consist of four-light canted bays, with two panes per light, set under flat stone arches. Two first-floor windows are small, three-pane casements under the eaves, while four are two-light casements with two panes per light, set in the hipped half-dormers. The south elevation mirrors this fenestration. The north and east elevations have unusual roof junctions where they meet the hipped ends of the block. The interior has not been inspected.