Basclose

House, probably of the 16th century, with significant improvements in the late 16th and 17th centuries, one dated 1627 according to a date plaque. The house is constructed of plastered cob on stone rubble footings; stone rubble stacks with Beerstone ashlar detail, one with its original stone chimney shaft and all topped with 19th-century brick, one Rolle Estate chimney pot; and a thatched roof. It is a 3-room-and-through-passage plan house facing south onto Fore Street, with the service end room at the left (western) end. Both the inner and service end rooms have gable end stacks, the former projecting, and the hall has a projecting front lateral stack. A 1-room plan rear block projects at right angles behind the inner room.

The 2-storey front has a regular, though not symmetrical, 4-window arrangement. The first-floor windows are likely 17th-century oak frames with chamfered mullions; the ground floor has 20th-century replacement casements, all with rectangular panes of leaded glass. The first-floor windows rise slightly into the thatch. The front passage doorway is left of centre and contains a 19th-century plank door, set within a 20th-century rubble-walled porch with a thatch monopitch roof. To the right of the doorway is the hall stack, built of coursed brown conglomerate stone blocks with cream-coloured Beerstone quoins, weathered offsets, and a tall original double chimney shaft topped with late 19th-century brick. A Beerstone date plaque inscribed "IC 1627" is situated at the base of the shaft. A small fire window is on the right side. The rear block also has a gable-ended roof and casement windows similar to those on the front.

Although an interior inspection was not possible, occupants claim the interior has been carefully modernised, retaining mostly 16th and 17th-century carpentry detail. The date of 1627 likely refers to the hall flooring, given the double shaft suggests a first-floor fireplace. Basclose is the most attractive house on Fore Street, containing a fine group of varied, listed buildings.