Beacon Cottage

SX 6493 - 6593 SOUTH TAWTON SOUTH ZEAL

8/243 Beacon Cottage

GV II

Cottage, a part of a larger house. Late C16 - early C17, maybe earlier, refurbished in late C19 when a larger house was divided into cottages. Plastered granite, maybe with cob; granite stack topped with C20 brick; thatch roof. Plan: small 2-room plan cottage in a terrace along the roadside and facing south- west. Larger right end room has an end stack backing onto the adjoining property. The cottage is certainly a fragment of a C16 or C17 2 or 3-room-and-through-passage plan but which part it was is not clear. The evidence is hidden behind the late C19 plaster and the adjoining cottages appear to have been rebuilt with the subdivision. 2 storeys. Exterior: the 2-window front is not really symmetrical. It contains C19 and C20 casements with glazing bars. The largest window, ground floor right, was made by knocking out the mullions of a late C16 - early C17 granite window. The moulded reveals are still there, so too is the hoodmould which has illegible initials carved on the labels. The doorway, just a little left of centre, contains a C20 plank door. Roof runs between those of the adjoining houses. Interior: was not available for inspection at the time of this survey. No carpentry detail is exposed on the ground floor. However the roof is said to be original and the description of massive curving timbers suggests some form of cruck or even arch- braced trusses. South Zeal is special being one of the few medieval boroughs in Devon where many of the C16 and C17 houses still survive to a greater or lesser extent.

Listing NGR: SX6503093631