Church Stile Cottage

Church Stile Cottage is a house on East Budleigh High Street with origins probably dating to the 16th century, though the entire building was reorganised and enlarged during the mid to late 17th century and modernised in the mid 19th century. The structure is built of plastered cob on stone rubble footings with stone rubble chimney stacks and brick chimney shafts. One of the chimney shafts, built of mid to late 17th-century brick, is an unusual survival for Devon. The roofs are thatched.

The house appears to have originated as a three-room-and-through-passage plan house facing onto the High Street to the east, with the service end room on the uphill right (northern) end. During the mid to late 17th century, the house was enlarged and substantially rebuilt. Only a small part of the original rear wall survives behind the former inner room. The house was broadened to accommodate a double-depth plan with new service rooms and a stairwell behind the former hall and inner room. The passage was extended through the new rear extension. The projecting front lateral stack to the hall appears to have been built or rebuilt at this time. The service end was enlarged and built out deeper than the rest, provided with a massive end stack that appears to serve back-to-back fireplaces. The adjoining block beyond (now Church Cottage) appears to have been built as a brewhouse or kitchen at the same time. The house was modernised in the mid 19th century, probably when Church Cottage was divided off from the main house. At this time the service end room was divided into two and the front room upgraded to a parlour or dining room.

Behind the inner room there is a block at right angles to the main range, probably a store of 18th or 19th-century date. Originally detached, around 1970 it was partly rebuilt and connected to the main house.

The front elevation is an irregular three-window front of late 18th or early 19th-century oak flat-faced mullion windows. All are three lights except for a four-light window on the first floor left. The ground floor windows are taller than those on the first floor and all contain rectangular panes of leaded glass except for two lights with glazing bars in the four-light window. The front passage doorway is right of centre, containing a 19th-century six-panel door with a contemporary flat hood on shaped brackets.

The hall stack has a tiny fire window looking downhill from the left side and a tall double chimney shaft of 19th-century brick. The service end chimney shaft is built of thin mid to late 17th-century bricks, possibly imported from the Netherlands. It has soffit-moulded coping and was extended slightly with late 19th-century brick. The roof is continuous with neighbouring Budleigh House to the left and Church Cottage to the right.

Interior

Although nothing definitively predates the mid to late 17th-century refurbishment, parts of the original house may survive behind late plaster. The partition between the hall and inner room has been knocked out and a 20th-century beam inserted. In the inner room section, a soffit-chamfered half beam across the end wall is propped by 20th-century posts. In the rear wall there is a late 17th to early 18th-century cupboard with moulded surround, dentil cornice, shaped shelves and panelled doors hung on H-hinges.

In the hall, the large soffit-chamfered crossbeam has had its stops knocked off. The large stone fireplace has chamfered sides but the soffit of the oak lintel has been cut back. The rear doorway of the passage is 17th-century oak with a chamfered surround.

Since the 19th century the service end room has been divided into two. The rear room is now a kitchen with a mid to late 17th-century soffit-chamfered axial beam with double bar-scroll stops. In the end wall, half of a massive fireplace is exposed with dressed stone sides and a soffit-chamfered oak lintel. On the other side of the partition, the rest of the fireplace has been demolished and replaced by a brick stack with an Adams-style chimneypiece.

On the first floor there are several late 17th to early 18th-century two-panel doors hung on H-L hinges. The stairs however are 20th-century and apparently have been turned round so that they now lead up from the passage rather than the hall.

The chamber over the hall has a small 17th-century fireplace with an oak lintel that is ovolo-moulded with scroll stops. The chamber over the service end has a 19th-century grate.

Where the internal partitions show their structure in the roofspace, they are timber-framed with cob nogging. The roof throughout is made up of A-frame trusses in which the rear principals are longer, carrying the roofs lower over the rear rooms. They have pegged lap-jointed collars.

This is an attractive house with an interesting development. The adjoining Church Cottage appears to have originally been part of the same house. The layout of the building and its proximity to the church may suggest that this was the original church house. Church Stile Cottage is part of an attractive and varied group of buildings, most of them listed, which line High Street as it rises towards the Church of All Saints.