Pizwell Cottage

LYDFORD PIZWELL SX 67 NE 12/51 Pizwell Cottage - GV II

Longhouse. Likely to be C16 but no dateable features are visible. Higher end much altered and extended in later C20. Granite rubble walls. Gable ended slate roof. 2 C20 rendered axial stacks. Longhouse plan with shippon at left end with passage, hall and inner room at the right. Exact position of passage now unclear but has probably been assimilated into shippon which now has a smaller subdivided section at its higher end through which it is entered. The house end has been altered and completely modernised in the later C20 and a 1-room extension has been built at its higher end. Exterior: 2 storeys. Asymmetrical 3-window front to the house of late C20 1 and 2 light casements. Right-hand windows are in extension. Small probably C19 leanto to left of centre in front of hall/passage. Shippon at left-hand end has a doorway to the right and 2 first floor loading doors. Its lower gable end preserves the original slit openings - 1 in the gable and 3 at ground floor level, with a drainage hole at ground level. Remains of outshut at rear of shippon. Interior: No original or early features are visible in the house part. The Shippon remains completely unaltered, retaining its original cobbled and stone paved floor with a central drain. The cattle standings which survive are unlikely to be original but are in the original positions with drilled holes at the base. The roof timbers have been completely replaced in the C20. Despite alterations to its higher end this building remains recognisably a longhouse with a particularly good example of a very unaltered shippon. It is situated in a very traditional group of 3 longhouses and the site of Pizwell was one of the 17 Ancient Tenements of the Forest of Dartmoor, first mentioned in documents in 1260.

Listing NGR: SX6682578478