Hayes Raleigh House

Hayes Raleigh House is a large detached house at Burgmann's Hill in Lympstone. Formerly the Lympstone Rectory, it represents a circa 1700 remodelling of an older house, with substantial 19th-century alterations and additions. At the time of survey in June 1985, the house was in multiple occupation.

The building is constructed principally in brick laid in Flemish bond, with a cross wing in rendered dressed sandstone and a left-hand extension in plastered cob. The roofs are of Turnerised slate with hipped form. The structure is two storeys in height.

The original plan was a 3-room cross-passage house with the service end to the right of the passage. The hall was heated by an external rear lateral stack of dressed stone, now visible externally as a plastered brick axial shaft that protrudes into the rear corridor. The service end was heated by an internal end stack of dressed sandstone, the brick shaft of which emerges through the front roof face. Part of the roof of this earlier build survives.

A dressed stone parlour cross wing, coeval with or earlier than the 3-room cross-passage plan house, now contains the principal circa 1700 rooms. Around 1700, the house was widened by the addition of a rear corridor and rear stairwing, and extended to the right (east). A rear wing and various single-storey additions at the east, including a conservatory, were added in the 19th century. At this time the entire house was refenestrated.

The front elevation comprises a 4-window range, each window bay separately gabled under hipped roofs, with the entrance bay slightly projecting. The windows are hornless sash types: one 16-pane sash to the first floor and three 12-pane sashes; tripartite hornless sash windows flank the main entrance, with 8:12:8 and 4:12:4 panes respectively. The inner face of the cross wing contains a 4-pane hornless sash with margin panes at first-floor level and a 12-pane hornless sash below. The front face of the wing itself contains no windows and a small external stack. The main door dates from circa 1700 and has large panels and HL hinges, with a canopy featuring a panelled underside. Two contemporary lead rainwater heads are present. Single-storey, half-hipped additions to the right-hand side include casement windows and a late 19th-century conservatory; these extensions stand forward of the main front and are joined by another entrance with a stone chamfered arch set diagonally. A single-storey late 19th-century extension to the principal room occupies the angle between the cross wing and the left-hand cob extension.

The rear elevation retains some original windows: a 12-pane fixed window with thick glazing bars, circa 1700, lights the inner face of the stairwing; two first-floor casement windows to the main range, one with 15 leaded panes per light and the other, under a segmental window arch, with 18 panes; below is a 3-light casement window with trefoil-headed 19th-century lights, but with a circa 1700 or earlier deeply chamfered surround. Large, elaborately decorated brick stacks are present to the end of the 19th-century rear wing and the right-hand end elevation of the main range. Hornless sash windows appear to this side. A modillion cornice extends around all the pre-19th-century components of the house and dates from circa 1700.

The interior of the cross wing front room features two tiers of large fielded panels with a cyma recta cornice; the fireplace surround and overmantel are of timber with original cornice, though much altered, retaining some inlaid fielded panels and reeded pilasters with Ionic capitals that may be original. Fielded panel doors to the rear include one with Ionic pilasters. The plaster ceiling contains a simple roundel and moulded cross beams. A cyma recta moulding extends along the length of the corridor to the rear of the former external stack and original outside wall of the earlier house. Fielded panels appear to either side of the cross passage. The oak dog-leg stairs feature turned fluted newels, bobbin balusters, and a ramped rail, with an associated panelled dado with ramped cornice. The cross-wing front chamber has a concave moulded cornice; the fireplace surround is lugged with an elaborate key motif frieze and central Bacchanalian panel. A 19th-century fireplace in the main-range ground-floor room to the left of the passage retains attractive Delft-type tiles depicting varied river and canal scenes with sailing boats and barges.