Hole Cottages

SX 69 SE DREWSTEIGNTON

4/46 Nos. 1 and 2 Hole Cottages

GV II

2 cottages, formerly a single farmhouse. Early or mid C16 with major later C16 and C17 improvements, modernised and subdivided in mid C20. Plastered cob on stone rubble footings; stone rubble stacks topped--- with plastered brick; slate roof (formerly thatch). Plan and development: originally a 3-room-and-through-passage plan house built across the hillslope facing north-west. No.1 , at the left (north-eastern) end, occupies the former inner room parlour and hall. The parlour has a gable-end stack. The hall has been subdivided to provide an entrance hall, staircase and a sitting room. It has an axial stack backing onto the former through passage. No.2 occupies the former through-passage and service end kitchen which has an end stack. Like many Devonshire farmhouses it is multi-phase with late medieval origins. Little remains of the original house but the hall at least was then open to the roof. Its stack was inserted in the late C16 and the hall was floored probably in the mid C17. The service end and inner room were extensively refurbished in the early or mid C17, the former as a kitchen, the latter as a parlour. Now 2 storeys throughout. Exterior: irregular 5-window front of C20 casements with glazing bars. Both cottages have C20 doors: the right one to No.2 is in the passage front doorway and the left one to No.1 has been knocked into the hall and has a C20 slate monopitch roofed porch. C20 leanto woodshed on left end. Roof is gable-ended. Interior: the former parlour (No.1) axial beam is soffit-chamfered with unusual facetted stops. The fireplace here has a plain soffit-chamfered oak lintel. Cob cross wall between the parlour and hall. The hall has a large granite ashlar fireplace and a plain soffit-chamfered crossbeam. The only part of the roof earlier than the C20 is the 3-bay section over the hall. It is original and carried on 2 side-pegged jointed cruck trusses with cambered collars and threaded purlins. It is smoke-blackened from the open hearth fire. In No.2, passage and kitchen have been knocked together. A crossbeam probably marks the line of the former lower passage screen. The service end kitchen has a soffit-chamfered and step-stopped axial beam. The large kitchen fireplace is blocked although part of its oak lintel shows. Most of the joinery detail throughout both cottages is C20.

Listing NGR: SX6906692896