Manor Cottages, Seaton, Devon

Built in 1901, this is a very attractive terrace containing six dwellings...actually there appear to be seven now, but more about that later. I didn't know anything about it to begin with, but the plaque was a good starting point with the date and initials, and I've been able to fill in some of its history from those. I did come across a reference to the name Manor Cottages, which also helped as there's no name on the terrace itself.

One of the things I ascertained is that the initials possibly stand for Sir Walter John Trevelyan, 8th Baronet (1866-1931). Sir Walter Calvery Trevelyan, the originator of building and improvement for Seaton, died childless and therefore had no heirs. However, the baronetcy went to his nephew Sir Alfred Wilson Trevelyan; Walter John being one of Alfred's descendants.

 

Built in what has become the local vernacular style of flint rubble, there are some lovely details of the late Victorian and Edwardian period. Three-light casement windows with leaded panes, or as in the case above, a divided top section, with ogee arched heads and Elizabethan style drip moulds on the ground floor. The first floor windows comprise three lights with a central casement window. The quoins surrounding the doors and windows are made of limestone, probably from Beer Quarry (situated just above the nearby village of Beer). 

Forward facing gables sit above the first floor windows, the plain ends painted to match the doors, which are all in bright, distinctive colours. Lovely dark grey slate roofs contrast nicely with the flint rubble facing, along with terracota ridge tiles. The terrace is reminiscent of almshouses, but was built during a very interesting time of experimentation in mixing and matching various styles coming from, and drawing on, the late Victorian Gothic. 

The limestone quoins and chert infill pattern is very similar to that of the Town Hall, which was built in 1904 just two years later.

 

 

About the seventh cottage! Originally there were just the six, but in recent years another bit was attached to the left hand side. Having trawled through my photos I found some that I'd taken in 2004 without the addition, one of which can be seen below, so it was built sometime after then. I vaguely remember building work going on there but no idea of the actual year.

As can be seen in the photo below, the addition has been beautifully built to blend in with the others, although it's smaller and looks slightly different due to the quoins that decorate the original end of the terrace. In fact, it's not really an extra cottage at all, but is an extension to the first cottage comprising a ground floor garage with rooms above, and constructed to look like another, separate section of the cottages. 

And to finish off, I took some photos of some of the lovely tiny front gardens on another day.