Easter Cottage

Summary

Domestic building, probably C18, with C19 and C20 alterations.

Reasons for Designation

Easter Cottage is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Architectural interest: a characteristic vernacular Devonshire cob building which has remained relatively unchanged externally since the early-C19 and, despite change to the internal room arrangement, the interior retains a number of original internal features;
* Historic interest: a good example of a C18 domestic building which retains C18 and early C19 fittings;
* Group value: with Lurley House (Grade II), a C17 cob building to the south.

History

Originally Easter Cottage was a single-depth, two-storey building with a two-room plan. A north wing had been added by the early C19. The cottage appears on the 1840 tithe map as an ‘L’ shape. The map shows a line dividing the east end of the main range from the rest of the building suggesting that this end may have been in use as an outbuilding, however, there is nothing in the building fabric to confirm this. By the late C19, the building was shown on the 1st Edition Ordnance Survey map (1889), as a single structure and the plan has remained largely the same since, with the exception of a single-storey lean to which was added to the rear wing in second half of the C20.

Details

MATERIALS: cob covered by render, on a stone plinth, all under Roman tile roofs with brick stacks at either end if the main range.

PLAN: a single-depth main range, on an east to west axis, with pitched roof and a later wing attached to the west end of the rear (north) elevation, on a north-west to south-east axis, with a hipped roof.

EXTERIOR: the main range is two storeys and has a three-bay front. The central bay contains a C20 four-panel entrance door with a partly glazed C20 porch. Above the door and in the flanking bays are five, twelve-pane pegged timber casement windows. The east elevation is blind with a brick stack above. A modern brick car shelter with a corrugated iron roof has been added to the east end of the rear (north) elevation and this end shows some evidence of rebuilding in the cob wall. A small C19 four-pane casement window sits in the main range, above the lean-to. The west elevation has an external chimney stack. The rear wing is of one and a half storeys with a later single-storey lean-to on the east side. Most of the windows in the extension are C20.

INTERIOR: the two-room plan on the ground floor of the main range remains largely unchanged with the exception of the stairway which has probably been relocated. The current stairway is late-C19, with plain stick balustrade and ball finial newel post, and has been repositioned opposite the main entrance. The entrance door opens on to the east end ground-floor room. A set of late-C19/ early-C20 decorative floor tiles runs from the entrance door across to the north wall. This room contains a fireplace with chamfered bressumer and modern burner. A chamfered stopped beam runs across the room; the stop on the west side of the south end is set slightly in from the wall and may indicate the original location of the stairway. The west end room is smaller and contains a large fireplace with a bressumer and a bread oven. Another axial chamfered stopped beam runs through this room. A plank door with strap hinges gives access to the rear wing which contains a roughly hewn axial ceiling beam. The second-floor plan has been altered with the change to the stair and plasterboard walls have been inserted to create three rooms and a corridor in the main range. All the doors on this floor are of timber plank construction. The room to the left of the stair retains late-C18 / early-C19 ‘L’ hinges; the other bedroom doors have modern strap hinges. The room to the right of the stairs has a mid-C20 square light above the door. Opposite this bedroom is a double plank door, with late-C18/ early-C19 ‘H’ and modern strap hinges, which leads down into the second storey of the rear extension (now a modern bathroom). A rolled steel joist has been inserted above this door. The collar-roof has four pegged trusses and some other historic timbers survive, though most of the rafters and purlins are modern replacements. Part of the east gable end wall has been rebuilt in concrete breeze block. The roof over the rear wing contains some pegged beams; however, considerable alteration has occurred with the insertion of a C20/C21 boiler within the roof space.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

485174

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Other
Title: Tithe Map for Lurley Source Date: c1840 Author: Publisher: Surveyor:
Title: 1st Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1:2500) Source Date: 1889 Author: Publisher: Surveyor:

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