Rectory Cottage is a Grade II listed building in the Exmoor National Park local planning authority area, England. First listed on 22 May 1969. Farmhouse.
Rectory Cottage
- WRENN ID
- dark-pier-lichen
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- Exmoor National Park
- Constituency
- Tiverton and Minehead MP: Rachel Gilmour (LD)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 22 May 1969
- Type
- Farmhouse
- Address
- Rectory Cottage, 1 and 2, Selworthy, Somerset
- OS grid reference
- SS 917 467
- Coordinates
- 51.20969, -3.55044
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
Rectory Cottage is a 17th-century farmhouse that has been altered and is now divided into two dwellings. The building is rendered over rubble and cob, with exposed cob on the rear elevation. It features a hipped thatched roof and has a lateral stack with a circular chimney located to the center left, along with a rebuilt stone stack above the entrance to No 1. The layout is not entirely clear without an internal inspection, but it appears to consist of three cells with a lobby entry, possibly enlarged to the right of the stack, and the entrance has been relocated.
The cottage is one and a half storeys high and has a symmetrical facade with two bays on each side. The first floor includes eyebrow dormers, and there are 20th-century wooden casements to the left of the stack. To the right, there are three and two-light leaded iron casements. The ground floor features an entrance in the left end bay with a side light, and a projecting bay with a slate roof that contains a 20th-century three-light wooden casement, which was formerly a shop. To the right of the stack, there is a leaded two-light iron casement, a 20th-century porch, and two additional windows beyond.
Notably, the second dormer on the right is flanked by two fleur-de-lys designs incised into the plaster and painted black, with a spade or inverted heart motif below the end dormer on the right. This decorative detail is a rare survival of what was likely a common form of decoration on traditional cottages.
Local climate
Rectory Cottage sits in a wetter-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 1,150 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 89% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 96% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 10 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 91% of listed buildings. Of these, 4 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
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- No EPC on record for this property
- No sale records on file
- No related consent applications matched
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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