Forstmill Wisteria Cottage

Two cottages, formerly a single house, located on Newton Poppleford High Street. The building dates to the late 17th century, possibly with an earlier core, and was modernised in the late 18th century when it was probably subdivided into two dwellings. It is constructed of plastered cob on stone rubble footings with some brick patching, and features a timber-framed porch. The stacks are of brick and stone rubble topped with 19th-century brick, and the roof is thatched.

The building is L-shaped, with the main block facing south, set back slightly from the road and positioned in front of the adjoining Exeter Inn to its right (west). The main block contains three rooms arranged in plan, with a rear block projecting at right angles behind the left (east) end. Wisteria Cottage occupies the right two rooms of the main block, while Forstmill occupies the left end room of the main block and the two rooms of the secondary rear block.

Wisteria Cottage has a lobby entry that faces onto the side of a large axial stack serving back-to-back fireplaces, with stairs rising from the left room behind the stack. On the right end is a narrow through passage between the right room and the Exeter Inn. The right room originally comprised two small rooms divided by an axial partition but has since been knocked together, presumably having been service rooms. The other room may have been an entrance hall of the original late 17th-century house, as evidenced by a two-storey porch on the left end of the front of this room. However, the ground floor of the porch has been enclosed with brick and is said to have been used as a butchers shop in the late 19th century.

Forstmill occupies the left (eastern) end room of the main block, which is served by a rear lateral stack, and the two rooms of the slightly lower and probably secondary rear block. The back room here has a lateral stack on the outer side.

The building is two storeys throughout, with the main block containing disused attics in the roofspace. The front elevation presents an irregular fenestration. The main block of Wisteria Cottage has a three-window section not quite symmetrical about a central doorway. To the right is a late 19th to early 20th-century tile-roofed canted bay window containing casements with glazing bars; the remaining windows are 19th-century 16-pane sashes with thatch eyebrows over the first floor windows. The main doorway is late 18th-century with part-glazed double doors featuring lower fielded panels and a large doorcase with flanking Tuscan pilasters, a moulded entablature, and bold pediment. A small plain plank door provides access to the passage at the right end. The porch contains 19th and 20th-century casements with glazing bars or a 20th-century oculus-type window on the ground floor inner side, with a hipped roof. The left end bay (Forstmill) has a horned 16-pane sash below a 12-pane sash. In the angle of the porch and main block is a small porch containing a plank door, the main entrance to Forstmill.

Brick facing is visible in places on the main front, whilst the first floor level is painted with black lines in imitation of timber framing. The porch, which is plastered framing, shows only the bressumer at first floor level. The roof has a half-hipped end. The left end return has an irregular three-window front of various 19th and 20th-century windows, mostly with glazing bars, and includes a French window at the right end. The roof is on a lower level and gable-ended to the rear.

The interior of the main block in both cottages dates consistently to the late 17th century. All three rooms have an axial beam, plain in the right room and soffit-chamfered with scroll stops to the centre and left rooms. The fireplaces are either blocked or somewhat rebuilt. The roof of the main block is carried on a series of A-frame trusses with pegged and nailed lap-jointed collars. Original plaster is said to survive extensively and is backed onto water reeds instead of wooden lathes.

Wisteria Cottage includes a good deal of late 17th-century joinery. Several doorframes are solid with bead-moulded surrounds and some plank doors may be contemporary. The disused stair door is certainly contemporary, hung on H-hinges with trefoil terminals. Panelled cupboard doors in the first floor chamber are also hung on H-hinges. At the time of survey, it was not possible to inspect joinery detail or the rear block in Forstmill.

Forstmill and Wisteria Cottage form an attractive group with the adjoining Exeter Inn, and all three properties once comprised a Chantry House founded in 1331.