MSO9218 - Post-medieval cottage southwest of Codsend Moors (Monument)

A post-medieval cottage with associated yards and enclosures is first shown on Greenwood's 1822 Map of Somerset. It is likely to have been associated with early 19th Century enclosure. The cottage was no longer inhabited by 1889.

SS 868 401 & SS 867 403. The remains of two post-medieval buildings and associated yards and enclosures were recorded by McDonnell on the southwest part of Codsend Moors in 1981. The site on the west (MSO9192) represents a cow stall and that to the east a small, two-room cottage. Both buildings were abandoned at about the turn of the Century. [1] This record relates to the cottage. The remains take the form of a rectangular stone built, possibly unmortared building with two rooms and two ancillary buildings attached at each end. The walls are up to 1.3 metres high. A small terraced path leads to the presumed entrance. Another stone built structure is cut into side of a gully to the west. A small yard is made up from a terrace. The drain on the front wall of the yard has been disturbed by an animal making its home there. The main building is 18 paces by 6 paces and the yard 15 paces by 8 paces. [2] McDonnell's NGR is inaccurate. [3] The site is not depicted on Day and Masters' map of Somerset, 1782 [4], nor on the Ordnance Survey 2 inch drawing of 1803-4 [5] but it is depicted for the first time on Greenwood's Map of Somerset 1822 [6]. Aston notes two manorial documents recording the site in 1826 and 1836 [7]. Codsend Moor was inclosed in 1804 and the Inclosure Map and Apportionment show no trace of the site [8]. With this evidence we can assume that the site, in common with an adjacent site MSO9192, grew up as a smallholding on one of the inclosed plots in the early 19th Century. In 1842 the main building is described as a "house" in the occupancy of one Thomas Brewer. The second structure is not depicted but another building is shown along the east side of the walled plot [9]. By 1889 the site was not inhabited [10]. [11] Rectangular building and associated walled plot together with a second smaller structure situated on sloping ground towards the south end of Codsend Moor. The description and sketch plan in [2] form a fair record of this site together with the following additions: The main building measures 15.8 by 5.9 metres overall. There are four rooms with internal dimensions (working west to east) of 3.9 metres by 1.1 metres, 3.9 metres by c3.6 metres, 3.9 metres by c3.6 metres and 3.9 metres by 1.7 metres. Direct entry is gained to the west and east end rooms through gaps in their south walls 1 and 0.8 wide respectively. Entry to the central rooms was probably as suggested by [1]. Surviving walls, though obscured by rubble, average 1 metres wide and 0.6 metres high. The north long wall reaches 1.7 metres high at maximum. The building is aligned along the contour and is terraced into the hillside: a deep cut of c.1.5 metres can be seen. Spoil from this operation may have helped to form the build up in the walled plot attached to the south side of the building. The walled plot is rectangular and measures internally 11.8 metres west to east and 7 metres north to south. Its west and east walls are still c.2 metres wide and 1.5 metres high but the south wall remains as a step only, 1.2 metres high. The east wall joins the building at the point of partition between the two easternmost rooms and so excludes the east end room from the plot (there is, however, no evidence that the two end rooms of the building are additions to the central ones). Access to the plot is gained in the west wall at the southwest corner of the building. Immediately west of building and plot is the gulley of a small stream. Its east face is stone revetted, presumably to keep water away from the habitation. Let into the west face is a small structure measuring 3.2 metres by 1.8 metres internally with poor walling c.1 metre wide and 1 metre high at maximum. There is an entrance 0.8 metres wide facing the stream. [12,13] This record was enhanced as part of the National Record of the Historic Environment to Exmoor National Park Historic Environment Record data transfer project. [14]