Former Coaching Inn (Admiral Vernon Public House), Including Cob Barn And Linhay To Rear

Former Coaching Inn (Admiral Vernon Public House), including Cob Barn and Linhay to Rear

A 17th-century cross-passage house, possibly dating to the 16th century, with later alterations. The building comprises two adjoining properties numbered 44 and 46 Chudleigh Road, with a 17th-century cob barn and early 19th-century linhay to the rear. The house was later converted into a coaching inn, formerly known as the Bell Inn, renamed the Admiral Vernon (recorded in census returns of 1881 and 1891, and on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1890).

The original plan of the cross-passage house remains discernible: the hall and inner room occupy 44 Chudleigh Road, whilst the service range and cross passage are located at 46 Chudleigh Road. A late 20th-century single-storey flat-roofed extension has been added to the rear of 44 Chudleigh Road, abutting a two-storey rear wing projection.

The building is constructed of dressed and rubble local Heavitree sandstone with plastered cob and a plain concrete tile roof.

The front elevation of 46 Chudleigh Road has a central doorway with 21st-century casements and a gable end stack on its south elevation. The main coaching inn elevation comprises three bays. The first bay contains two modern windows, one per floor. The central bay features a doorway with plain timber door beneath a lean-to porch and four modern casements in an informal arrangement. A massive lateral stack dividing the first and central bays is constructed of coursed and dressed Heavitree sandstone with a chamfered plinth, topped by a tall modern brick chimney shaft. The end bay has a modern three-light casement above a carriage entrance formed of two tall timber doors with wrought-iron hinges, set in a substantial timber frame with stone wheel deflectors at the base. The returning north elevation is three bays and two storeys with informal modern metal and timber windows. At first-floor level in the gable of the main range is a two-light, eight-pane Yorkshire-type horizontal sliding sash window of early 19th-century date. The rear gabled elevation has a massive end stack of Heavitree sandstone with set-offs at first-floor level and a chamfered head below a tall modern brick shaft. The north elevation, partly enclosed by the entrance arch, comprises three bays of modern timber and metal windows, except for a first-floor two-light, eight-pane Yorkshire-type horizontal sliding sash, probably of 19th-century date, set within the gable of the main range. The rear wing has a large gable end stack of dressed and coursed Heavitree sandstone.

Interior

44 Chudleigh Road contains the former hall bay with a substantial fireplace featuring a timber bressumer and canted Heavitree sandstone jambs (one partly rebuilt), and a transverse ceiling beam with chamfers and scroll stops. The southern wall dividing the inn from the cottage has a modern fireplace. The northern bar area has a substantial transverse ceiling beam with deep chamfers but no stops, and a rebuilt fireplace in the north gable wall. The roof may contain a 17th-century roof structure but was not inspected.

The interior of No. 46 Chudleigh Road was not inspected but is believed to retain 17th-century joinery including doors and chamfered ceiling beams, as well as 17th-century ironwork such as cockshead and L-hinges. It retains jointed-cruck roof trusses.

Subsidiary Features

The 17th-century cob barn contains A-framed trusses of pegged construction and massive chamfered floor beams with rebated joist sockets. A roughly worked door at first-floor level is evidently of some age. Adjacent to the barn is a five-bay linhay, circa 1800, with the westernmost bay enclosed in brick. The rear wall, formerly of cob, has been rebuilt in brick. Much of the timber structure survives with front posts, former floor beams tied to the wall posts with extended tenons fixed with pegs, and trusses with pegged apexes and collars.

Admiral Vernon was a West Country Member of Parliament and victor over the Spanish at Porto Bello in 1739. The building was identified as a former three-room 17th-century cross-passage house in 1980 and is recorded in the Standing Building Record held by Exeter City Council.