Dibbe Cottage Dibbe House Lower Dibbe Cottage

SX 69 SE SOUTH TAWTON SOUTH TAWTON

4/229 Lower Dibbe Cottage, Dibbe House and Dibbe Cottage GV II

3 cottages, formerly a single farmhouse. Mid C17, maybe earlier in parts, modernised when divided into cottages circa 1970. Plastered stone rubble and cob, parts are massive blocks of coursed granite ashlar; granite stacks, two of them with their original granite ashlar chimneyshafts; thatch roof. Plan and development: 3 1-room plan cottages built down a hillslope and is facing north-east. They occupy a 3-room-and-through-passage plan farmhouse. Uphill at the right end Dibbe Cottage occupies the former inner room and it has a gable-end stack. Dibbe House occupies the former hall and passage and the hall has an axial stack backing onto the passage. Lower Dibbe Cottage occupies the former service end kitchen and a small dairy at the left end. Kitchen axial stack backing onto the dairy and there is a large newel stair at the front end of the dairy. 2-storey outshot in front of the dairy. Slit window of unknown function immediately right of the front passage doorway. All cottages are 2 storeys. Exterior: main front has an irregular 4-window front of C19 and C20 casements with glazing bars. The passage front doorway is a little left of centre and now contains a C20 glazed door under what might be a C19 gabled hood. The roof is gable-ended to right and hipped to left. The 2-storey outshot in front of the left end is flat- roofed but a late C19 photograph shows it with a thatch-roofed gabled roof. Dibbe Cottage and Lower Dibbe Cottage have rear doorways. Passage rear doorway (to Dibbe House) has a mid C17 ovolo-moulded oak frame. Interior: only the interior of Lower Dibbe Cottage was available for inspection at the time of this survey. The structure here is entirely mid C17. The former kitchen crossbeam is soffit-chamfered with straight-cut stops and the granite fireplace has an ovolo-moulded oak lintel. Roof of A-frame trusses with mortice- and-tenoned collars. Some of the common rafters appear to be smoke-blackened,maybe reused from a late medieval roof, and the only apparent hint of an earlier house on the site. The rest of the house is probably as well-preserved. Tne previous listing mentions panelling and the Devon SMR reports an oak screen, an oak stair with acorn-shaped knobs and an elaborately moulded cupboard here. Source: Devon SMR

Listing NGR: SX6528194324