Building a cob house in devon in 1461.

Manorial accounts for Sidbury, Devon, in 1461 provide almost the full costs for rebuilding a village house. It was thatched, with cob walls and jointed crucks, probably of three bays with one room floored over, and the accounts contain the earliest known written mention of cob. The assumption of responsibility by the manorial lords for building work in the village appears to be a response to a relatively short-lasting economic downturn in the mid fifteenth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]