Mill House

SX 6493 - 6593 SOUTH TAWTON SOUTH ZEAL

8/238 Nos 1 and 2 Mill House

GV II*

3 cottages in a single former house. Mid C16, thoroughly refurbished in the late C19, probably when the house was subdivided into cottages. Plastered walls incised as ashlar probably over granite stone rubble, maybe ashlar, maybe some cob; stone rubble stacks with plastered granite ashlar chimney shafts; slate roof, formerly thatch. Plan and development: 3 cottages facing north-east and built down the hillslope. No 1 at the uphill right end is a 1-room plan cottage with a gable-end stack backing onto the adjoining house, Moorside (q.v), No.2 in fact comprises 2 cottages; a central 1-room plan cottage with an axial stack backing onto No 1 and, at the left end, 2-room plan cottage with central staircase and a large projecting gable-end stack. All the cottages have secondary rear outshots probably built in the late C19. The late C19 refurbishments and subdivision of the property has hidden most of the early fabric but the modernisation is believed to have been superficial. There appears to be here a C16 3- or 4-room-and-through-passage plan house with the service end room at the right end (No 1). The small 1-room extension in front left is thought to have been a 2-storey porch. The hall is occupied by the central cottage and maybe the adjoining room-of the-left cottage. Inner room is occupied by the stair and left end room. The hall at least was probably open to the roof originally and may have been heated by an open hearth fire. Now all 3 cottages are 2 storeys. Exterior: irregular 3:1:1 - front of late C19 and C20 casements, the latest without glazing bars. All 3 cottages have late C19 part-glazed panelled doors. 2-storey gabled bay is probably a former porch. The ground floor is now enclosed but there are said to be granite posts on the forward corners. The main roof is gable-ended. Interior: shows mostly the result of the late C19 refurbishment. The beams are boxed in and the fireplaces are blocked. The roof is inaccessible. However over the central cottage (the putative hall) an arch-braced truss is exposed and others are plastered over elsewhere. It seems very likely that the C16 house with its C17 improvements survives largely intact behind the late C19 plaster. The cottages appear to occupy a heavily-disguised C16 house containing high quality carpentry. South Zeal is special being one of the few medieval boroughs in Devon to which a large number of early houses survive.

Listing NGR: SX6514093533