The Retreat

The Retreat is a house dating from the 1660s, altered in later centuries. It forms part of a row of buildings south of the parish church in Cullompton. The house is constructed of cob with a stone plinth; the exterior is plastered and the roof is thatched with gabled ends. Originally, it had a three-room, cross passage plan, with a later extension added over a vehicular access. It has a right-hand end stack and an axial stack at the upper end of the main room, both with brick shafts.

The front of the house, which faces away from the church, has a scattered arrangement of windows. To the extreme left is a three-light window above the vehicular access, with 18 leaded panes to the outer lights and 21 to the middle light. To the right of the access is a former end wall, and it is here that the sequence of cruck roof timbers begins internally. A wide, studded panelled door with ovolo-moulded jambs is located to the right of centre, set beneath a two-storey gabled porch with open ground-floor sides, supported by two rough Ionic timber pillars and an ovolo-moulded lintel. A bressumer with a cyma recta moulding carries a decorative frieze above. Above the porch is a five-light window with chamfered jambs and mullions, and 21 leaded panes per light, with a C19 fascia. The upper windows of the original section include two four-light windows and one three-light window, all with chamfered jambs and mullions; the three-light window has 12 leaded panes per light, while the four-light windows have 21. A later single-light window is located to the right. On the ground floor are two three-light and two five-light windows, the former with eight leaded panes to each light, the latter with concave-moulded jambs and mullions, also with eight leaded panes. A small single-light window, possibly a fire window, is also present.

At the rear of the house are three tiny windows - one at the head of the stairs with concave-moulded jambs, one with ovolo-moulded jambs, and one unmoulded.

Inside, the right-hand room has an end fireplace with unchamfered stone jambs, a timber lintel with a cyma recta moulding and scroll stops, and fragments of painted decoration on the jambs - squares divided diagonally into black and white quarters. A simple chamfered beam is also present. The main room has a fireplace with a chamfered timber lintel, scroll stops, and a cyma recta moulding, alongside a further chamfered beam with scroll stops and a cyma recta moulding. Two door surrounds in this room feature concave moulding. The joists have scratch mouldings. There is a rough, unchamfered axial beam in the inner room. The roof structure consists of five jointed crucks with trenched purlins visible in the upper rooms. Painted fireplace details suggest a date around the 1660s.