Brights Cottages

SX 6493 - 6593 SOUTH TAWTON SOUTH ZEAL

8/240 Nos 1, 2, 3, and 4 Brights Cottages

GV II

Row of 4 cottages, mostly occupying a larger house. Mid C16 with major later C16 and C17 improvements, modernised when subdivided in the C19. Plastered walls, probably granite stone rubble, maybe with cob; stone rubble stacks, the early ones still with their original granite ashlar chimneyshafts; slate roof, formerly thatch. Plan and development: row of 4 small 1- or 2-room plan cottages set back from the road and facing north-east. They are numbered from right (No 1) to left (No 4). Nos. 2, 3 and 4 occupy a mid C16 3-room-and-through-passage plan house. Nos. 2 and 3 share the original wide through-passage which has been divided into 2 narrow passages. No.2 occupies the former service end room and has a C19 rear lateral stack. No 3 occupies the former hall and has a large axial stack backing onto the passage. No 4, at the left end, occupies the former inner room and has a gable-end stack. Its front doorway was inserted in the C19. No 1 at the right end, is the only 2-room plan cottage. It is probably a new cottage added when the old house was subdivided. Its left room has an end stack backing onto No 3. The old house began as some form of open hall house, maybe heated by an open hearth fire (the hall roofspace is inaccessible). Hall stack was inserted in the mid or late C16 and hall was floored in the early-mid C17. All 4 cottages are 2 storeys and have C19 and C20 service outshots to rear. Exterior: overall 7-window front comprising a variety of C19 and C20 casements, the older ones with glazing bars. All 4 doors are C20. Roof is gable-ended. Interior: only Nos 3 and 4 were available for inspection at the time of this survey but these do include most of the historic core of the building. No.3 the former hall, has a massive granite ashlar fireplace with hollow-chamfered surround and the inner (left) end hooded on a granite corbel. The mid C17 crossbeam is soffit- chamfered with bar-runout stops. An oak plank-and-muntin screen is plastered over at the upper end. The rear is exposed in No 4 and includes a blocked crank-headed doorframe. Hall roof carried on an original large side-pegged jointed cruck truss but the roofspace is inaccessible and therefore smoke-blackening from an open hearth fire is suspected but not proven. No 4, the mid C17 parlour, has a granite fireplace with replacement lintel. The crossbeam (cut through to rear by the present staircase) is soffit-chamfered with roll stops. A late C16 - early C17 oak rank-headed doorframe from the-main room to kitchen outshot (has this been reset?). Roof over this cottage an A-frame with its apex cut off. No 2, at least, should also contain C16 or C17 carpentry detail. South Zeal is special being one of the few medieval boroughs in Devon where a significant number of its C16 and C17 building still survive.

Listing NGR: SX6522393476