Bowdel Buddle Cottage

Details

CHERITON FITZPAINE LAG HILL (east side) SS 80 NE Cheriton Fitzpaine 7/41 - Buddle Cottage and Bowdel GV II

2 adjoining cottages in former farmhouse. Possibly C16 core, now mostly early C17, extended in C18. Plastered cob on rubble footings; stone stacks with C19 and C20 brick chimney shafts; thatched roof. Originally a 3-room-and-cross-passage house facing south-west with inner room at left (north-west) end. Projecting stair turret (now disused) to rear of passage. Extended 1 room to right (south-east) in C18. Large stack projecting to front of hall, axial stack in former gable end to service room, and rear lateral to C18 extension. Buddle Cottage now occupies former inner room and hall, and Bowdel occupies former service room and C18 extension. 2 storeys with some disused attics. Irregular 7 window front of late C19 and early C20 casements. Door to Buddle Cottage with C20 glass-sided porch is set left of projecting hall stack and is inserted into former upper end of hall. The window to right of the stack occupies position of original passage door. Door to Bowdel towards right end has small C20 hood. It leads into C18 extension. Eaves drop in level over C18 extension. Roof is half-hipped to left and hipped to right. Rear elevation is mostly blind but stair turret has a blocked early C17 oak 4 light window with ovolo-moulded mullions. Good interior where exposed. The house appears to have had only minor alterations since the early C17 and all exposed features date from that time. More are undoubtedly hidden. Hall-passage screen has been removed. Passage-service screen is a full height partition serving as party wall between the two present cottages. Though clad it is said to be an oak plank-and-muntin screen at ground floor level and is said to have floral painted ornamentation. Above, the first floor has a second tier of oak plank-and-muntin screen with framing above in which the cob nogging is held on a ladder of sturdy horizontal riven oak lathes fitted into individual holes of each side of the posts. The partition at the upper end of the hall is only exposed in the roofspace where identical framing shows. The hall was apparently floored from the beginning as its two crossbeams are identical to the axial beam in the inner room - a double ovolo moulding with scroll stops. Hall fireplace is blocked. The service room has a chamfered and scroll-stopped crossbeam and a massive granite fireplace with an oven to rear and the remains of a walk-in smoking chamber to left. On first floor over services (Bowdel) 2 rooms are said to be separated by oak plank-and-muntin screen and have chamfered and scroll-stopped axial beams. A flat-arched door to stair turret has chamfered surround and scroll stops, and another is suspected from the landing to the hall chamber (Buddle Cottage). Roof carried on a series of side-pegged jointed cruck trusses with dovetail lap-jointed collars. Early C17 attic over service room and maybe over inner room. C18 extension has plain carpentry detail. This was built as a substantial house. The rooms are spacious and high and the carpentry of a high standard. It is unusual for Devon in being entirely of early C17 date as far as can be seen.

Listing NGR: SS8709706157

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

96493

Legacy System:

LBS

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.