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Summary

A late medieval or post-medieval house which bears the date 1574. Now divided into five cottages.

Location

Protected Status

• Listed Building (II) 1213014: PORCH COTTAGES

Other References/Statuses

• Old DCC SMR Ref: SY19SW/67
• Old Listed Building Ref (II)
• Old Listed Building Ref (II): 87258
• Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division: SY19SW18

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• HOUSE (Built, XIV to XIX - 1301 AD (Between) to 1900 AD (Between))

Full description

Ordnance Survey, 1880-1899, First Edition Ordnance 25 inch map (Cartographic). SDV336179.

House shown as divided into cottages.

Hoskins, W.G., 1954, Devon, 477 (Monograph). SDV362468.

Porch House is dated 1574.

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, 1955, SY19SW18 (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV112407.

The Porch House is dated 1574

Department of Environment, 1973, Sidmouth, 25 (List of Blds of Arch or Historic Interest). SDV98992.

Porch House, Church Street, Sidford. Now nos 1-5 porch cottages. Dated 1574 but altered xviii/xix century. A two storey block, the front and sides of which are plastered. The rear has stone rubble walling. Date tablet, originally on chimney has initials nie. Thatched roof and xix century wood casement windows. One ground floor room has polygonal stone pier supporting the ceiling (doe).

Fisher, J., 1999, East Devon Conservation Area Appraisals: Sidford, 5 (Report - non-specific). SDV346112.

Child, P., 2002, A3052 Sidford High Street (Correspondence). SDV346886.

Porch Cottage is depicted by P. O. Hutchinson with a thatched gateway.
If the Sid Vale Association are right in saying that it has a smoke-blackened roof then it will be of medieval date. The date of 1574 is typical for the flooring-in of such open hall houses in Devon, and may therfore record this change.
The existing garden wall corresponds with the one depicted by Hutchinson, still rising up at the far end to where the thatched entry used to be, although there is no evidence now of the other gateway in the return of the wall to the front door. The wall is constructed mostly of local chert and impossible to date in itself. However, given its correspondence with the one depicted, it would be safe to say it is at least as old as 1855, the date of the picture.

Helliwell, M., 2002, A3052 Sidford High Street (Correspondence). SDV359052.

Ordnance Survey, 2022, Mastermap 2022 (Cartographic). SDV364674.

Marked as 'Porch Cotts'.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments: none recorded

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events: none recorded

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