Cockington Court
Cockington Court, home of the Carys and Mallocks, is listed Grade II* and has been open since 1991. It now has craft studios, a gallery, a tea room and a walled rose garden.
Learn more about Cockington Court on Google MapsFitted Wardrobes In Cockington
Can a listed Cockington cottage have a fitted wardrobe at all?
Wardrobes and bedroom cupboards for cob and red sandstone cottages in the village, designed with listed building consent in mind
The short answer is usually yes, with care and sometimes with consent. Almost every building in Cockington's village centre is listed, which means fixed joinery inside a cottage bedroom can count as an alteration. The walls are cob or local red sandstone, often both, and the bedrooms under the thatch lose height quickly towards the eaves. A fitted wardrobe here has to stand on its own rather than hang off an earth wall, let that wall keep breathing and come out again one day without damage. We design Cockington wardrobes along those lines, prepare the drawings a consent application needs and make everything at our Barton workshop before it comes into the village.
Ask About A Cockington Wardrobe
Tell us roughly what you have in mind and we will arrange a time to come and measure. A photo of the space on your phone is usually enough to start with.
The Joiner Behind It
Wardrobes for a listed cob cottage
Fitted storage in a Cockington cottage needs care. Most buildings in the village centre are listed, and the walls are cob or red sandstone, so nothing should be forced.
Luke comes from a joinery family and started young. Knowing how to fix into old walls gently comes from experience, not a classroom. Luke and the team plan with consent in mind from the first visit.
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Cockington
Bedrooms under thatch, walls made of earth
Cockington stayed in the hands of three families from the twelfth century until 1932, and the long ownership kept the village from being rebuilt. So the cottage bedrooms are much as they were: small, low at the edges, with walls that bow and lean because cob was built up in lifts and trimmed back by eye. Into that, a modern wardrobe with a square carcass and a rigid back simply will not sit. It either leaves wedge-shaped gaps or forces you to cut into a wall that may be several hundred years old.
Our approach is to treat the wardrobe as a piece of furniture that happens to fit the room exactly. It stands on its own frame, steps down with the ceiling, and touches the cob only where a timber ground or a beam gives us something sound. The same cottages tend to need careful work on their casements and plank doors, which we explain on our page about timber windows and doors in Cockington.
The Case For It
Why cottage wardrobes in Cockington need a different approach
Free-standing frame, fitted look
The carcass carries its own weight on the floor, so nothing heavy is fixed into the cob. From the room it looks built in.
Stepped to the eaves
Tall hanging where the ceiling is highest, drawers and short cupboards as it drops towards the thatch.
Air behind old walls
We keep a gap between the back of the wardrobe and the cob so moisture moving through the wall can escape rather than condensing on your clothes.
Reversible by design
Minimal fixings into the historic fabric, all into timber, so a future owner can take the wardrobe out and leave the room as it was.
Plank and batten doors
Door fronts can echo the cottage's own ledged or battened doors, in painted softwood or oak, with thumb latches if you want them.
Drawings for the conservation team
If consent is needed, we draw the wardrobe in plan and section showing exactly how it meets the walls, which is what the council will want to see.
Before You Choose
Picking a wardrobe maker for a Cockington cottage
Ask early whether the maker has worked in listed buildings. A cottage here is not the place to learn, and you want someone who will raise the consent question at the first visit rather than after the wardrobe has been fitted.
Fixing is where cottage work goes wrong. Plugs and screws straight into cob will not hold and can damage the wall. Fixing to timber grounds, beams or the floor, and keeping the load on the wardrobe's own frame, is the right answer.
Ask about the back of the carcass and the wall behind it. A sealed panel tight against an earth wall traps moisture. A maker who understands old buildings will leave space for air and may suggest a breathable finish to any new timber that touches the wall.
Compared
Bedroom storage options for a listed Cockington cottage
Cottage owners in the village usually weigh up these four. The comparison is made for a listed cob bedroom under a thatched roof.
| Self-supporting fitted wardrobe | Wall-hung fitted wardrobe | Freestanding made piece | Shop-bought wardrobe | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Load on the cob wall | Almost none | High | None | None |
| Likely consent position | May need listed building consent | Likely to need it | Not usually needed | Not usually needed |
| Fits under a sloping ceiling | Stepped to it | Stepped to it | Made to the height | Rarely |
| Reversible later | Yes | Leaves damage | Yes | Yes |
| Uses the room fully | Yes | Yes | Mostly | Leaves gaps |
| Relative cost | Middle to upper | Middle | Middle | Lowest |
Our Process
How we make a wardrobe for a Cockington cottage
These seven steps take a Cockington wardrobe from idea to fitted piece. Consent, where it is needed, sits before anything is made.
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Looking at the room and walls
We measure the bedroom at floor, waist and ceiling heights, find any timber grounds or beams, and check the condition of the cob or stone.
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Consent question answered
If the cottage is listed, we explain whether a fitted wardrobe is likely to need consent and what the application will include.
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Drawing the piece
Plan, elevation and a section showing the gap to the wall and every fixing point, ready for you and for the council.
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Timber settled
Boards and solid timber sit in the workshop to settle before cutting, which matters in a cottage that stays damp for much of the year.
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Made and test-built
The wardrobe is built and assembled at Barton, including its stepped top, then broken down to suit the cottage stair.
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Finished off site
Painted or oiled in the workshop. The back and any face near the wall get a breathable finish.
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Placed and scribed
On the day it is assembled, levelled on the old floor and scribed to the walls, with only a few fixings into timber. Once the cottage has been through a damp winter, we call in to ease the doors.
Reassurance
What We Stand Behind
- Timber moved before it was cut
- Boards come into the workshop and sit there before anything is machined. Cutting a wide oak panel on the day it arrives is how you end up with a door that has cupped by Easter. In a bay where spring humidity runs high, that waiting period is not optional.
- Scribed to your walls, not shimmed to them
- Older Torquay walls are rarely square and almost never plumb. Every fitted piece is scribed to the actual surface on site. If you can see daylight behind a filler strip, the job was measured once and hoped over.
- Ironmongery rated for the job it is doing
- A drawer in a holiday flat gets pulled open forty times a week in August. We fit runners and hinges specified for that, and we tell you which ones we used, so in eight years you can buy the same part rather than replacing a whole unit.
- If it moves, we come back
- Solid timber is a material that responds to the room it lives in, and occasionally something needs easing in its first year. That visit is part of the job, not a callout. Say so and we will book it.
Budget
What a cottage wardrobe costs in Cockington
£2,500 – £12,000
typical fitted wardrobe run
Cockington wardrobes are usually small but slow, so they sit around the middle of our range. The time goes on setting out a room with no straight lines, making a stepped top and preparing consent drawings where needed. The joinery cost guide explains the general ranges.
Guide range only, VAT included. Your figure comes from the measured visit and the drawing you sign off.
What moves the priceParking near the crossroads
In summer the lanes around the Totnes Road crossroads and the forge are full of visitors, so we plan early deliveries and carry sections in by hand.
Consent drawings
Drawings for a listed building application are included in our quote. Council time and any fees are separate.
The shape of the room
The more a ceiling slopes and a wall bows, the more setting out and scribing a wardrobe needs.
Questions
Cockington wardrobe questions
- Do I need listed building consent for a fitted wardrobe in Cockington?
- Often you will. Nearly every building in the village centre is listed, and fixed joinery inside a listed building can need listed building consent from Torbay Council. The village also sits within the Cockington conservation area, and many cottages are held on leases that need the freeholder's agreement for alterations. A freestanding wardrobe usually avoids the question. Torbay Council explains the rules in its listed building consent guidance.
- Can a wardrobe go against a cob wall in a Cockington cottage?
- Yes, if it is designed for it. We leave an air gap behind the wardrobe and fix only to timber, so the wall can keep drying out and nothing pulls at the cob.
- My bedroom is under the thatch. Is there enough height for a wardrobe?
- Usually, in part of the room. We put long hanging where the ceiling is tallest and step the wardrobe down to drawers or a low cupboard near the eaves.
- Would a freestanding piece be better than a fitted one?
- Sometimes. A made-to-measure freestanding wardrobe or cupboard can fit almost as closely, needs no fixings at all and usually needs no consent. Our bespoke furniture page shows what that can look like.
- Can the doors match the cottage's plank doors?
- Yes. We can make wardrobe doors in the same ledged or battened style as your room doors, and fit thumb latches or simple knobs to suit.
- Will the wardrobe get through a cottage stair?
- We measure the stair at the survey and make the wardrobe in sections small enough to carry up, then assemble it in the bedroom.
Feedback
What Customers Say
Rated 5 out of 5
“Our bedroom is in one of the old Warberries villas and the back wall bows by about an inch and a half across four metres. Two national firms measured it, quoted, then went quiet. These came, measured, and said it needed scribing rather than filling. The wardrobes go right into the corner and there is no gap anywhere. My husband keeps running his hand down the join.”
Rated 5 out of 5
“We run a bar on the harbourside and needed the counter and back fittings replaced without losing a summer weekend. They built the lot off site, came in on a Sunday night and had us trading by Tuesday lunchtime. Knowing the whole thing was made before they ever shut our doors is what sold it.”
Rated 5 out of 5
“Sash windows on the front elevation, and we are in a conservation area so it had to be timber and it had to match. They took a profile off the original, made new boxes in accoya, and the planning side went through without a query. From the pavement you genuinely cannot tell which is which.”
Rated 5 out of 5
“Two alcoves either side of the chimney, and they turned out to be 40mm different in width, which explains why the flat-pack ones we tried first never sat right. Made as a pair but to two different sets of measurements. Small thing, but it is the difference between looking fitted and looking bought.”
Rated 5 out of 5
“We let our place out over the season so everything gets hammered. I asked them to over-specify the drawer runners and they did, and told me exactly which ones so I can order spares. Three summers in, nothing has sagged. The last kitchen we had did not last two.”
Local
What To Do In Cockington
Cockington is a village people travel to see. These are three of the places visitors head for first.
Cockington Country Park and lakes
Behind the Court, about 450 acres of park, woods and fields stretch up the valley. The easiest walk follows the three ornamental lakes.
Learn more about Cockington Country Park and lakes on Google Maps
The Drum Inn
Lutyens drew a model village of twenty buildings for Cockington, but only the Drum Inn was built. Its thatch, brick chimneys and garden steps are his.
Learn more about The Drum Inn on Google MapsCockington On The Map
Coverage
Areas We Cover
Cockington is part of Torbay, and we cover it alongside every Torquay district and nearby town listed here.
Across Torquay
- Wellswood
- The Warberries
- The Lincombes
- Chelston
- Babbacombe
- St Marychurch
- Cockington
- Shiphay
- Torre
- Ellacombe
- Livermead
- Maidencombe
And across South Devon
Or go straight to a service
Plan storage that suits the cottage
Send a photo of the bedroom and tell us whether the cottage is listed. We will visit, check the walls and suggest whether fitted or freestanding makes more sense.