Tudor Cottage, Seaton, Devon

A chance conversation about architecture in Seaton led to a friend recommending that I take some photos of the Tudor Cottage. I don't know why, but I seem to have overlooked this building and it never really showed up properly on my radar. So I went for a walk that way to have a proper look...and what a delightful treat it is!

A Grade II listed building range of two cottages, it was built circa 16th century with plastered and whitewashed stone rubble walls and a thatched roof, the right hand side of which is hipped. Built in the vernacular style, with local materials consisting of knapped flint and dressings made of Beer Stone from the nearby limestone quarry above the village of Beer. The left side cottage - which we are mostly looking at here - has a large external chimney stack at the front of the building.  To the left of the chimney is a ground floor four-light ovolo-moulded wood mullion window. There are four first storey windows across the front range; three of them three-light casements.

I couldn't find much information about it after this first visit, but later on in the year I happened to be walking this way again and saw the owner outside in her garden. I stopped to chat and she told me more of its history, and very kindly invited me to have a look inside and take some photos.    

 

The front door is set in a moulded timber frame with cambered head and stone quoins, and leads to the cross passage. My photo doesn't do justice to the lovely old door, as it is very dark and to get the details with my camera meant the wood looks washed-out. It is, however, a rich, dark wood.

The cross passage, shown above, is screened with plank and muntin with Tudor arched doorways either side. The initials of the man who built the passageway are scratched into one of the screens; W A in roman style lettering. Unfortunately, it was too dark to take a close-up of the initials, but the screens are shown in the photo above right.

The fireplace belonging to the external chimney piece has been partially blocked in. Two cupboards to one side cover the moulding of the original fireplace. The owner once used the cupboard as a store for logs, but as it is now a listed building having an open fire is disallowed, and the fireplace now contains a modern electric fire. Again, it was too dark to take a photo of the fireplace, but a photo taken in the same room can be seen below, showing the ceiling with its moulded beam and cross beams.

The moulded ceiling beam came from a shipwreck which was washed up below the nearby St Gregory's church. The river was much wider then, allowing ships to sail as far as Colyton, and the river came to the bottom of the steps at the end of the churchyard, which now lead down to the path at the edge of the Marshes Nature Reserve. The beam contains a large bolt hole from when it was part of the ship.
 

Due to the indoor lighting, the wall in the above photo came out rather yellow, instead of the white it actually is.This was taken in the stairwell, with a tiny window showing the thickness of the cobb and plaster wall, which kept houses cool in summer and warm in winter.

And finally, further views of the exterior, including the right hand side with its hipped roof.

From across the street with lots of sunlight flooding my lens! ;)

And another view of the front garden.