Description

SY 09 NE
6/165
22.2.55

TALATON
Hawthorn Cottage (formerly listed as Escot Old Lodge)

GV
II*

Cottage. Late C17, probably earlier origins. Flemish bond handmade red brick with decorative use of burnt headers, on the front, the brick is facing cob; brick stacks and chimneyshafts; thatch roof.
Plan: 3-room-and-through-passage plan house facing south. At the right (east) end there is a small unheated room, originally some kind of service room, probably a buttery or dairy. Next to it is the passage, then the hall with a large projecting front lateral stack. This was probably used as the kitchen. At the left (west) end there is an inner room parlour with an end stack. The layout suggests that there is at least the shell of an earlier house here, probably some kind of open hall house. However few features are exposed inside and none earlier than the late C17. 2 storeys with secondary outshots across the rear.
Good exterior: most attractive. Irregular 4-window front of flat-faced mullion
windows mostly containing rectangular panes of leaded glass but some glazing bars. The first floor windows have flat eyebrows over. Most of the windows are
replacements but some are original; certainly the first floor right end one is. The passage front doorway is right of centre (next to the hall stack) and contains a C20 part-glazed door under a contemporary thatch-roofed hood. There is a flat platband across the front at first floor level. The roof is hipped to left and half-hipped to right. There is an old single light window in the left end which also contains rectangular panes of leaded glass.
Interior: is largely the result of C19 and C20 modernisations. Few early features are exposed. Both fireplaces are blocked by C20 grates. However a cupboard alongside the hall grate shows what seems to be one end of a Tudor arch lintel. The hall also has a 4-panel ceiling of intersecting chamfered beams with scroll stops.
The roof was not inspected but the bases of straight principals show below ceiling level; they are probably late C17 A-frame trusses. Devon SMR reports jointed cruck trusses here but none were seen.
Hawthorn Cottage is very picturesque, an effect enhanced by its position in the
landscaped grounds of Escot Park. Also it must be one the earliest brick buildings in rural Devon, one of a number of good early brick buildings in this area. Its position in Escot park leads to speculation that it was originally a dower house or something similar. It is the size of a farmhouse but there is no evidence of any farmbuildings near it.
Source: Devon SMR.

Listing NGR: SY0833997721

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17546737

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)
• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 4: North: North v. 4 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)