Snowdrops

Snowdrops is a house, originally a single dwelling that was later divided into two cottages before being reunited in the 20th century. The earliest parts of the building date to the early 16th century, with significant alterations made in the later 16th and 17th centuries. It was divided into two cottages in the 18th or 19th century and restored to a single dwelling around 20th century. The house is constructed of granite stone rubble with some cob, with granite stacks. One stack is disused, while the other retains its original granite ashlar chimneyshaft, now plastered. The roof is slate, having originally been thatched.

The house was initially built with a two-room-and-through-passage plan, parallel to and set back from the street, facing southwest. The right-hand room served as the service area and kitchen, featuring an end stack shared with the adjacent Buttercup Cottage. The hall on the right has an axial stack backing onto the passage. The building occupies the full width of its historic burgage plot. Rear extensions were rebuilt around 1980, although some earlier walling may survive behind the hall. Initially, the house was open to the roof, divided by low partitions, and heated by an open hearth fire. The hall fireplace was likely inserted in the late 16th century, and the kitchen fireplace in the 17th century. Flooring of the service area is of indeterminate date, with the hall being floored in the early or mid-17th century. The front is now irregular, featuring 20th-century casement windows, mostly dating to 1986. A 19th-century service outshot, now a garage, is located at the front.

The interior was largely modernised around 1980, but the historic structure remains largely intact. The hall fireplace is granite ashlar, hooded with granite corbels, and includes a 19th-century oven. A crossbeam in the hall features stop-chamfered spine beams with run-out stops. The service end kitchen has a replacement lintel above the fireplace and a curious alcove behind a round-headed stone arch. A roughly-finished crossbeam is present in the kitchen. The original roof structure consists of four bays carried on large, side-pegged jointed cruck trusses with cambered collars. The carpentry structure is smoke-blackened from the original open hearth fire. Snowdrops is situated in South Zeal, one of a few medieval boroughs in Devon where many 16th and 17th-century houses remain.