This large, irregular, thatched building began life as a late medieval three room cross passage open hall house. In 1910 Julius Drewe bought the entire building and possibly other properties in the village, along with Whaddon Park, where he was to build Castle Drogo . It was hence Drewe who applied for a government grant to restore the cottages between 1926-1931. From the Historic England listing (https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1306328?section=official-listing), it appears that in 1926 there were already 4 living units in the building and, since these were the terms of the act, they were occupied by rural workers and presumably continued to be so inhabited. The Drewe family donated the four cottages to the National Trust in 1974, at which time further work was carried out.
Whereas some farmers and landholders may have found it genuinely difficult to find the funds to improve housing for their workers c1926-1930, the same could not be said of Julius Drewe at Drewsteignton. Drewe was literally spending a fortune on building the ‘last castle in England’ (1911-1930). However, Drewe only began to live at Castle Drogo in 1925. He was consequently in the right place in 1926 to manage his village properties and take full advantage of the provisions of the 1926 Act. The 10 requirements for newly converted cottages cover the most basic amenities such as safe water supply, a sink and separate WC or EC (Shears, 1968, p.16). We can infer from this list that 1-4 Glebe Cottages would not have met all these requirements for over a decade of Drewe ownership prior to 1926 or they would not have qualified for a grant.