I was once told, some forty or more years ago, that this building was originally a bakehouse. I hadn't found anything to contradict that when I wrote the article for my now defunct website. However, I've since discovered its true history, therefore I've changed the title to reflect that.
It's just around the corner from where I live, and I've always loved to see its state of decay and dereliction. There is something wonderfully photogenic of old wood, slate, stone and brick, together with wild flowers and ferns growing out from the stonework.
The small field, at the edge of which it sits, is usually fenced off, but the gate was open on this particular day. I happened to have my camera with me at the time, so it seemed rude not to take up the invitation! It isn't big or sensational; used as a storage/work shed, it looks similar to many 'long house' styles of outbuildings, which is quite typical of the East Devon area, but there is some interesting history, and I love the building for its wonderful idiosyncrasy.
The above photo, along with a couple of the others, is also on the Pebble Buildings page. You can see why as this building is choc-a-bloc full of pebbles in the walls, along with a mixture of bricks, flint rubble and large stones.
Some time later, I saw the owner in the field and stopped to chat. I asked him about the history and told him what I'd been told about it. He said that it had never been a bakery, but only ever a dairy, and that the building next to it was used by Newenham's Repairs.
Having looked at some old OS Maps I saw that this building was on the oldest map dated 1891. A house next door to the field entrance was also on there, written in as Eyewell Cottage (Eyewell Green being the road opposite) and both were surrounded by trees...possibly an orchard. On the later map of 1968 - 1973, Eyewell Cottage is now written as Elm Cottage; now called Elm House.
The field once belonged to a Nursery, as shown on the 1933 map. The term nursery referred to a plant nursery, where trees and plants were grown for sale or replanting elswhere. Nowadays the name is much less used and a local one - Otter Nurseries in Ottery St Mary - has just recently changed their name to Otter Garden Centres instead, reflecting the more common term now in use. The owner showed me the ridges in the field where the greenhouses once stood and they can be seen on the 1936 OS map.
A few years ago I took several on-line courses in Archaeology and in one of them we had a fun project concerning Stratigraphy. Instead of digging a trench we had to look out of the window and select a building to see how it developed by looking at its different layers. I cheated a bit and looked from my balcony where I could just about see this building...if I squeezed into the corner and leant over the railing, lol. It was such a good choice as there are so many additions and bits of patchwork, from old red brick, wood, pebbles, flint and rubble, to some breeze blocks blocking a window on the end by the road.
Taken from across the field (above) you can just about make out the wedge-shaped end of the building on the right side of the central houses. I was trying to get some details of those houses as it looks as though the outbuildings had been part of something else which had been partially demolished. The owner of the field, however, told me that they were built like that.
A close-up from my balcony, showing the adjacent road opposite the old dairy and its shed at the bottom of the photo. And below, one showing the building from its entrance on the main road, with its breeze blocked window.
One of my favourite buildings. :)
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