MDE20997 - Shelley's Cottage, 1 Mars Hill, Lynmouth (Building)

A detached cottage dating to the 17th or 18th Century. The interior was severely damaged by fire in 1907. This is one of two properties in which Shelley may have stayed for 9 weeks in 1812 while writing 'Queen Mab'.

Number 1 (Shelley's Cottage), Mars Hill is 17th century or earlier with alterations. It is the highest cottage of the group, set behind Number 2, with the front at right angles to it. It has two ancient stone chimneys, one with many offsets projecting at the front. It has a thatch roof and two small gabled half dormers. The building is stone, and partly plastered and limewashed. It has a small approach with a local stone retaining wall,which is limewashed. [1] Detached cottage. C17 or C18. Rendered cob or rubble, thatch roof, but some tiles on rear slope. 2-unit plan with end and front lateral stacks to heated ground-floor rooms; a small cottage, at the end of the row climbing Mars Hill, at right angles to these and facing S. 2 storeys; 2-window range, all casements; at first floor, in small gabled 'eyebrows', a single- and 2-light to a thin mullion, above a C20 door. To the left, forward, is a large stepped square stack with attached bread oven under slate roofing, with another stack to the right gable, which has a small light over French doors. The rear has two C20 casements. INTERIOR: only partly inspected, but seriously damaged by fire in 1907, and shows no evidence of early features. HISTORICAL NOTE: the property now forms part of the Rising Sun Hotel (qv). It is one of 2 houses in Lynmouth which claim to be where Shelley stayed in 1812 for 9 weeks while he was writing 'Queen Mab'. The rival claimant is Shelley's Cottage Hotel (qv) in Watersmeet Road, which has some secondary documentary evidence in support, although romantic tradition would point to the Mars Hill cottage as being a more likely base for the poet. [2] Much of Mars Hill, formerly seven separate cottages, now forms the Rising Sun Hotel. No. 1 is supposedly where Shelley stayed in 1812 while writing Queen Mab although a there is a rival claim. [3] The building was visited in April 2012 as part of the rapid condition survey of Exmoor's Listed Buildings 2012-13. It received a BAR score of 6. [4] Early in the 19th Century Shelley's Cottage was owned by a Mrs Hooper. The poet Shelley and his teenage wife Harriet stayed with Mrs Hooper in 1812 but it is not clear whether she owned this cottage during that time. The cottage is now part of the accommodation offered by the Rising Sun Inn. The cottage is part of a row of fisherman's cottages, when the cellars were used for smoking herrings. [5]