Description

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 12/03/2015

SS 62 NW
11/161

SWIMBRIDGE
Lower Cobbaton and The Cottage including outbuilding to rear

(Formerly listed as Cob Cottage and The Cottage including outbuilding to rear)

GV
II*
Farmhouse, now divided into 2 occupations. Probably late C15/early C16 with late
C17 remodelling and extension. Painted rendered stone and cob. Thatch roof with
gable ends. Tall lateral hall stack with offsets and twin projecting bread ovens
with slated caps. Tall brick stack at right end. Tall rubble stack with offsets
heightened in brick at left end. 3-room cross-passage plan, the hall and cross-
passage partition now removed, formerly open to the roof. Probably phased flooring
over in C16/C17 and with additional parlour added at front left end in C17 forming
overall L-shaped plan. 2 storeys. Main range has 4 window range. From left to
right: C17 splayed mullion window with 6 paned leaded casement to left-hand light.
C19 2-light casement 4 panes per light to left of stack. 4-light window, 2 panes
per light and small 2-light casement, 2 panes per light at right end. Ground floor
has C17 3-light mullion window 2 panes per light to left of cross-passage doorway
with 5 plank door. Hall window of 3 lights, 2 panes per light, has been pushed out
in line with stack and has slated canopy. 2-light casement 2 panes per light to
right. Across the angle of the main range and wing at left-end is a pantiled porch
over plank door to wing. To its left is a C17 3-light ovolo mullion window with
leaded lights of 6 panes above a similar C17 ovolo mullion window of 4 lights, 2
panes per light, both with iron stanchions. Gable end of wing has an inserted 2-
light window with 4 pigeon holes to left over a 2-light casement, 2 panes per
light. There is an infilled mullion window to stair turret to rear of hall with
integral thatched dairy outshut to left.
Interior: many C17 features survive. Both the inner room and principal room to
wing have moulded plaster ceilings of a similar date, probably late C17, both with
large central roundels with corner pieces and moulded cornices, that to the inner
room following the angle of the chimneypiece which is set across the top right
corner of the room. The majority of door surrounds have scroll-stopped durns and
old plank or panelled doors. 2 flights of stairs to stair turret to rear of hall
and single flight of stairs to the wing, all with original treads. Double creamery
to rear wall of hall. Scratched cross stop to ovolo-moulded hall beam and plain
chamfer to probable bressumer to jettied end. Large cloam and brick lined bread
ovens to each side of hall fireplace. Lower Cobbaton has 2 raised cruck trusses with
morticed and tenoned collars with 2 tiers of threaded purlins and ridge purlin with
extremely heavy smoke blackening to the whole underside of the timbers including
rafters and thatch roof covering, and to the solid cob partitions to the gable end
of the inner room and to lower end of cross-passage which rises to the apex of the
roof; this acts as a further truss and carries the purlins to the gable wall of the
lower end, but there is no access to the roof space of "The Cottage" so it is not
known whether the smoke blackening extends the whole length of the main range. A
single heavy truss supports the roof structure of the wing, with traces of moulded
plasterwork surviving to the cornice of this wing. Outbuilding to rear, now used
as studio, formerly a barn. Stone rubble, thatched roof. Rectangular on plan. 2
storeys.

Listing NGR: SS6130726487

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17532781

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

• 
  Dorset (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990: Updated version
• 
  Period property manual, victorian house manual 2 books collection set by ian rock
• 
  Old House Care and Repair
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)