Hawthorn Cottage / Escot Old Lodge

Description

This information is taken from the statutory List as it was in 2001 and may not be up to date.

TALATON SY 09 NE 6/165 Hawthorn Cottage (formerly listed as Escot Old Lodge) 22.22.55 GV II*

Cottage. Late C17, probably earlier origins. Flemish bond handmade red brick with decorative use of burnt headers, on the front, the brick is facing cob; brick stacks and chimneyshafts; thatch roof.

Plan: 3-room-and-through-passage plan house facing south. At the right (east) end there is a small unheated room, originally some kind of serivce room, probably a buttery or dairy. Next to it is the passage, then the hall with a large projecting front lateral stack. This was probably used as the kitchen. At the left (west) end there is an inner room parlour with an end stack. The layout suggests that there is at least the shell of an earlier house here,probably some kind of open hall house.

However few features are exposed inside and none earlier than the late C17. 2 storeys with secondary outshots across the rear.

Good exterior: most attractive. Irregular 4-window front of flat-faced mullion windows mostly containing rectangular panes of leaded glass but some glazing bars.

The first floor windows have flat eyebrows over. Most of the windows are replacements but some are original; certainly the first floor right end one is. The passage front doorway is right of centre (next to the hall stack) and contains a C20 part-glazed door under a contemporary thatch-roofed hood. There is a flat platband across the front at first floor level. The roof is hipped to left and half-hipped to right. There is an old single light window in the left end which also contains rectangular panes of leaded glass.

Interior: is largely the result of C19 and C20 modernisations. Few early features are exposed. Both fireplaces are blocked by 020 grates. However a cupboard alongside the hall grate shows what seems to be one end of a Tudor arch lintel. The hall also has a 4-panel ceiling of intersecting chamfered beams with scroll stops.

The roof was not inspected but the bases of straight principals show below ceiling level; they are probably late C17 A-frame trusses. Devon SMR reports jointed cruck trusses here but none were seen.

Hawthorn Cottage is very picturesque, an effect enhanced by its position in the landscaped grounds of Escot Park. Also it must be one the earliest brick buildings in rural Devon, one of a number of good early brick buildings in this area. Its position in Escot park leads to speculation that it was originally a dower house or something similar. It is the size of a farmhouse but there is no evidence of any farmbuildings near it.

Source: Devon SMR.

Listing NGR: SY0833997725

Content

This is part of the Series: IOE01/2100 IOE Records taken by Robert Vickery; within the Collection: IOE01 Images Of England

Rights

© Mr Robert Vickery. Source: Historic England Archive

This photograph was taken for the Images of England project