MDE20999 - Skye Cottage, 1 Mars Hill, Lynmouth (Building)

Skye Cottage, Mars Hill is probably 17th century or early 18th century with alterations. It is a two storey stone cottage with a roughcast front. It has a thatched roof with stone slates at the eaves. There is one first floor French casement, and other windows are casements or sashes. The ground floor has a Georgian bowed window retaining glazing bars. There is a wood trellis to part of the ground floor, and a small gabled porch. [1] House at end of row. Early to mid C19, possibly incorporating some earlier work. Rendered, thatch roof. A single-depth cottage at the end of the row which climbs Mars Hill to the left. 2 storeys; irregular 3-window range. The first floor has a margin-pane French window to a balcony in 3 bays of wood balustrading to the left, and, with lintels at a lower level, two 2-light small-pane casements, all in plain reveals. The ground floor has an early display window in 20 panes, with curved glass returns; to the left is a C19 door, and to the right a C20 door, all contained under the balcony, which has glazed cheeks. To the right, centred between the windows above, is a broad 2-light small-pane casement. The eaves has a scalloped fretted board set forward from the wall plane The right gable, with stack, has a raised verge with slate coping on a kneeler to the front, a 2-light casement at first floor, matching those to the front, and a smaller glass block light to the ground floor. The bottom half of the corner here is rounded, and the rear is set to a curve running into a set back outshut. The rear wall has some 4-pane sashes, and one small 12-pane. INTERIOR not generally accessible, but may be of interest. The ground floor retains some flagstone paving, and the end room to the right has a range under a bressumer, and with bread oven. The scale of the building suggests early origins, and its position corresponds with the earliest settlement here. An early photograph (Loveless) shows that there was a 16-pane sash to the right of the (overgrown) balcony, and only one 2-light casement at this upper level. (Loveless J: Reflections on Lynton and Lynmouth, Old and New: Plymouth: 1989-). [2] Among the earliest listed buildings are those stepped up the slope at Mars Hill. This group also contains no. 1 Lynmouth Street, which the listing details describe as early-mid 19th century, but probably of earlier origin. It is thatched and rendered with a variety of frontage detail, including first floor French window with margin panes on to a balcony with timber balustrading. The ground floor has an early shop window of 20 panes with curved glass returns. To the right and the rear are sash windows with narrow glazing bars, a typical early 19th Century feature. [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]