Description

SX 79 SW DREWSTEIGNTON DREWSTEIGNTON

5/106 Church Cottage
22.2.67

GV II*

Small cottage. Mid C16 with a major early C17 modernisation. Coursed blocks of
massive granite ashlar with some granite rubble patching; granite ashlar stack and
chimney shaft; slate roof (formerly thatch).
Plan and development: small 2-room plan cottage built adjoining the churchyard and
facing north. The larger right (west) room has a projecting gable-end stack and
this end faces onto the village square. Originally the unheated left (east) room
was floored and the right room was an open hall heated by an open hearth fire. In
the early C17 the stack was inserted and the hall floored over. Secondary outshot
to rear. Main house is 2 storeys.
Exterior: irregular 1-window front of early C20 casements with glazing bars. The
front door is roughly central and contains a C20 plank door in a probably C19 solid
oak frame with bead-moulded surround. The churchyard lych gate (q.v) abutts the
left end of the front. Roof is gable-ended. Similar windows onto the churchyard on
the left end. On the right end there is an early C17 granite-mullioned 2-light
window with hoodmould to each floor right of the chimney stack.
Interior: appears to be well-preserved although much of the structure is hidden by
C19 and C20 plaster. Nevertheless the top of an oak-framed full height crosswall
shows in the roofspace. The true cruck truss over the hall and the hall side of the
crosswall is smoke-blackend from the open hearth fire. The early C17 fireplace is
blocked by a C20 grate and the hall is floored by an early C17 soffit-chamfered and
step-stopped crossbeam.
This is a very interesting house being so small and so old. Certainly it has been
this size since the early C17 refurbishment, and the early work is of high quality.
Furthermore it occupies an important site in the centre of Drewsteignton village and
forms part of a group with other listed buildings in the vicinity of the Church of
Holy Trinity (q.v). A plaque on the front (sheltered by the lych-gate roof) records
the purchase of the cottage by subscription by the parish in memory of William
Ponsford of Ford House who died in 1931.

Listing NGR: SX7360690842

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17537232

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

• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Georgian Style and Design for Contemporary Living
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
• 
  Worcestershire Revised Edition (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)