Another Devonshire (Cob) Farmhouse, Weeke Barton.
The cracks that are sometimes found in old cob buildings are almost entirely attributable to unsuitable design in such respects, or to bad foundations.
Cob walls built up in the ordinary way are not very suitable for internal partitions on account of their considerable width and the consequent waste of space, though in old work cob was sometimes used as a filling for stud and lath partitions which were finally plastered over in the usual way.
The sun-dried clay-lumps so much used for walling in Suffolk would seem to be admirable for forming the partitions in a house of cob.
Cob work is usually repaired with rubble, stone, or brick.
New openings are easily cut through cob walls, and this fact has occasionally led to the collapse of an old building through the zeal for light and air of some new occupier exceeding his caution, and causing him to cut away the substance of his walls in cheerful disregard of the laws of gravity.