East Week Cottages

SX 69 SE SOUTH TAWTON EAST WEEK

4/193 No. 3 East Week Cottages (formerly listed as Cottage at 22.2.67 East Week)

GV II

Cottage, former farmhouse. C16 origins with C17 improvements, major late C19-early C20 modernisation. Granite stone rubble with some cob on wall tops; granite stack with tall granite ashlar chimney shaft; slate roof (formerly thatch). Plan and development: 3-room-and-through-passage plan house facing north-west and is built down the hillslope. Uphill at the left (north-eastern) end is an unheated inner room (probably a dairy originally). The hall has a large lateral stack projecting from the front with granite ashlar window bay alongside. The service end was reorganised in the C20 and now contains 2 rooms. Only limited internal inspection was available at the time of this survey and therefore it is not clear what evidence remains of its original form. Nevertheless it seems clear that it began as some type of open hall house. It may have been a Dartmoor longhouse. The hall fireplace was probably inserted in the late C16 and the hall bay was added when the hall was floored in the early or mid C17. Inner room is now open to the roof. The rest is 2 storeys. Exterior: irregular 1:1:2-window front of mainly C20 casements with glazing bars. The top window of the hall bay is a replacement but the ground floor one is original, that is to say mid C17; it is 4 lights with granite mullions and a king mullion, 2 of them containing diamond panes of leaded glass, and hoodmould with the labels carved with the initials TC. Passage front doorway contains C20 door (similar to rear). Main roof is gable-ended. Interior: service end rearranged in C20 and roof here replaced at same time. Inner room open to roof where the structure is completely hidden by plaster. In the hall the fireplace is blocked. Crossbeam here has plain soffit chamfers. Crosswall at upper end is lined with C17 oak wainscotting of small field panels over bench level. The bench is missing although the shaped bench end remains. Upper passage screen is clad with C20 boards. Roof over hall and passage was not available for inspection at the time of this survey. East Week is a straggling hamlet containing several other attractive listed buildings.

Listing NGR: SX6636091950