East Week Cottages

This is a cottage, likely originating in the 16th century, with alterations in the 17th century and a major modernisation in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It is built of granite stone rubble, with some cob on the wall tops, and has a granite stack with a tall granite ashlar chimney shaft, and a slate roof (formerly thatched). The cottage is situated on a hillslope, originally built as a 3-room-and-through-passage plan house facing north-west. An unheated inner room, possibly originally a dairy, is located at the north-eastern end. The main hall features a large projecting lateral stack with a granite ashlar window bay alongside. The service end was rearranged in the 20th century and now contains two rooms. The house appears to have begun as an open hall house, and may have been a Dartmoor longhouse. A hall fireplace was likely inserted in the late 16th century, and the hall bay was added when the hall was floored in the early or mid 17th century. The inner room is now open to the roof. The rest of the building is two stories high. The front has an irregular 1:1:2 window arrangement, mostly featuring 20th-century casement windows with glazing bars. One ground-floor window in the hall bay is original, dating to the mid 17th century, and is four lights with granite mullions and a king mullion; two lights contain diamond panes of leaded glass, and the window has a hoodmould with carved initials "TC." The passage front doorway has a 20th-century door, similar to the rear door. The main roof is gable ended. The service end was rearranged in the 20th century, and the roof here was replaced at the same time. The interior of the inner room is open to the roof, with the structure concealed by plaster. The hall fireplace is blocked, and the crossbeam has plain soffit chamfers. A crosswall at the upper end is lined with 17th-century oak wainscoting of small field panels over bench level; the bench is missing, although the shaped bench end remains. An upper passage screen is clad with 20th-century boards. The roof over the hall and passage was not inspected. East Week is a hamlet containing several other listed buildings.