Holly Cottage Lilac Cottage Pilgrim Cottage

Three cottages in Drewsteignton, Crockernwell, formed from a former farmhouse said once to have been an inn. The building dates from the mid to late 16th century with 17th-century improvements. It is constructed of plastered cob on stone rubble footings with stone chimney stacks; one retains its original granite ashlar chimney shaft while the others are topped with 20th-century brick. The roof is thatched.

The three cottages are set back from the road facing north-west. They appear to have been created from an original 3 or 4-room-and-through-passage plan house, though extensive alterations have made the original layout difficult to determine. Lilac Cottage occupies the left (north-eastern) end and appears to represent the service end. Holly Cottage in the centre apparently occupies the former passage and hall, where the putative passage is now blocked at both ends with access through the hall via a new door. Unusually, the hall contains an axial stack at the upper end backing onto the former inner room. Pilgrim Cottage comprises the inner room (a parlour with a projecting front lateral stack) and the right end room (with a projecting end stack). The hall was probably originally open to the roof before being floored in the mid-17th century. The parlour represents early or mid-17th-century refurbishment, and the right end room is likely an 18th or 19th-century addition. All three cottages are two storeys tall with 20th service outshots at the rear.

The front elevation displays six windows in total: three to Lilac Cottage, two to Holly Cottage, and one to Pilgrim Cottage. These are various late 19th and 20th-century casements with glazing bars. The first-floor window of Pilgrim Cottage is a gabled half dormer. All three cottages have roughly central doorways containing 20th-century doors; the outer two have contemporary gabled porches. The roof is continuous across all three cottages, half-hipped to the left and hipped to the right.

At the rear of Pilgrim Cottage, the inner room chamber at first-floor level retains a 17th-century oak-framed window with two ovolo-moulded mullions, one light containing rectangular panes of leaded glass.

The hall in Holly Cottage contains a large, probably original, granite ashlar fireplace. Alongside to the left, beneath the present stairs, is an oak Tudor arch, now disused and blocked but still retaining its original plank door. The crossbeam is soffit-chamfered with run-out stops, probably dating to the mid-17th century. The hall-passage partition has been replaced in brick, though at first-floor level the original large-framed crosswall remains. The 2-bay hall roof is carried on a large side-pegged jointed cruck roof truss. The roofspace is inaccessible but the roof is believed to be clear.

The inner room parlour in Pilgrim Cottage features a richly-moulded crossbeam with step stops and moulded joists. The fireplace is granite ashlar with a plain surround. The roof over this section is inaccessible and the truss is boxed into a partition. The end room has a roughly-chamfered crossbeam and a rebuilt fireplace.

Lilac Cottage was not available for inspection at the time of survey.