Whimple Post Office

This is a post office and postmaster’s house, dating from the early to mid-16th century, with later 16th and 17th century additions and some 19th and 20th century modernization. The walls are plastered cob on stone rubble footings, with stone rubble or cob stacks topped with 19th and 20th century brickwork, and a thatched roof.

The house follows an L-shaped plan. The main block faces west, towards the church, and originally had a four-room layout. Two small rooms are situated at the north end, separated by an axial wall containing a stack serving the rear room, which is now the kitchen. The main living room, formerly the hall, is next to this, with a corresponding axial stack. An unheated inner room, now the Post Office, is at the right end. A parlour projects at right angles to the rear of this end and has a disused outer lateral stack that slightly projects.

The interior has been significantly altered in the late 19th and 20th centuries, and much of the original structural carpentry has been replaced or concealed. However, it appears the main block originally had a three-room-and-through-passage plan. The hall was originally open to the roof and was heated by an open hearth fireplace. The hall stack was added in the late 16th to early 17th century, and the hall was floored over in the early to mid-17th century. The parlour wing was likely added in the late 16th to early 17th century. The passage and lower end were rearranged in the late 19th to early 20th centuries to create the current layout.

The house is two stories high with rear outshots. The exterior features an irregular four-window front with late 19th and 20th century casement windows, the latest without glazing bars. A 20th-century shop window with glazing bars is on the right end. A ground floor window to the left is believed to block a former passage front doorway, and another blocks a front doorway into the former hall. The current doorway, located on the right end, has a 20th-century plank door. The left wing has a gable-ended roof, while the parlour wing roof is half-hipped to the front.

Inside, exposed carpentry is mainly from the 16th and 17th centuries. The hall crossbeam is chamfered with scroll stops, matching the finish on the oak lintel of the fireplace. The parlour wing shows no visible carpentry, and its original fireplace is blocked. A 17th-century oak window with a chamfered mullion is set within an internal wall of the crosswing. The roof of both wings is carried on side-pegged jointed cruck trusses; the roof space reveals smoke-blackened timbers and thatch over the hall.