Dunkeswell Post Office, Bankside Cottage And Spring Cottage

The building comprises two adjoining cottages, one of which now serves as the Dunkeswell Post Office, located in Dunkeswell. Dating primarily to the late 17th and early 18th centuries, it has undergone later alterations, including 18th and 19th-century extensions, and a thorough refurbishment of Spring Cottage in 1987.

The cottages are constructed mainly of plastered local stone rubble, with some cob, featuring stone rubble stacks topped with 19th and 20th-century brick, and a thatch roof. The building layout is an L-shape. The main block, housing the Post Office and Bankside Cottage, has a three-room plan. The right-hand (south-east) room is narrower and lower than the rest of the main block and is characterized by a gable-end stack. A central room has an axial stack backing onto the right-end room, while the left room, now the Post Office, has a rear lateral stack. Originally, there was a through-passage between the left and centre rooms, but the rear portion was blocked in the 20th century by a staircase and bathroom. Spring Cottage, with a two-room plan, projects at right angles to the rear of the left room of the main block. The first room of Spring Cottage shares a stack with the Post Office and features back-to-back fireplaces. It appears that Spring Cottage and the front Post Office room represent the original late 17th or early 18th-century house, whereas the passage and the centre room of Bankside Cottage may be contemporary or an 18th-century addition. The stack in the centre room has the potential to be a 20th-century insertion, while the right-end room is likely a 19th-century addition. Both sections of the building are two storeys high, with a 20th-century single-storey kitchen extension belonging to Bankside Cottage situated in the angle between the two wings.

The main block features a regular three-by-one window front with 20th-century casements that simulate leaded rectangular panes. Contemporary thatched porches shelter both the former passage front doorway and the Post Office front doorway, which contain 20th-century doors. The roof is hipped to the left and gable-ended to the right. Spring Cottage has 20th-century casements with glazing bars, a 20th-century door, and a gable-ended roof.

Internally, the right-end room of the main block has no exposed carpentry detail and a 20th-century grate in the fireplace. The centre room features a chamfered crossbeam with run-out stops and a 20th-century grate in the fireplace. The Post Office room has a chamfered oak lintel over a large fireplace. The roof is inaccessible, but the bases of straight principals are visible, suggesting late 17th or 18th-century A-frame trusses. Within Spring Cottage, nearly all the carpentry, including the roof structure, was replaced in 1987, although a stone rubble fireplace with a chamfered oak lintel and a chamfered and step-stopped crossbeam remain, both dating to the late 17th century. The building is situated as part of a group of traditional thatched-roofed houses near the Church of St Nicholas.