Post Office Cottage And The Post Office And Adjoining Wall In School Lane

Post Office Cottage and the Post Office and Adjoining Wall in School Lane, Thorverton

A house and two adjoining cottages, now one property incorporating the Post Office. The building has late medieval origins and was remodelled in the late 16th or early 17th century. A kitchen wing was added in the 17th century, and two small 17th-century cottages adjoining the kitchen wing have since been incorporated into the accommodation.

The building is whitewashed and rendered, with blocked-out stonework on the School Lane elevation. It is constructed of various materials: the range facing School Lane is said to be cob on stone rubble footings, while a photograph taken during re-rendering reveals that the right end of the main block is timber-framed with brick nogging above stone, and the kitchen wing is stone to first floor level with cob above. The roof is thatched, gabled at the left end and at the end of the wing. There are brick chimney stacks: one at the left end, one axial, and one rear lateral stack to the main range, with additional axial and end stacks to the wing.

The building occupies an L-shaped plan on the corner of School Lane and Bullen Street. The late medieval core runs north to south along School Lane and shows evidence of a three-room plan with a cross passage, with the lower end to the left. It is unclear whether the hall was originally open to the roof or part-floored. When the hall was floored, an axial stack was added backing onto the putative cross passage. In the 17th century, a kitchen wing was added at right angles to the inner room along Bullen Street. The main range was refurbished in the late 18th century with a stair added against the rear wall of the old hall.

The exterior is two storeys. The School Lane front is an asymmetrical three-window elevation with a 19th-century entrance to the right of centre, which opens directly into the old hall. This entrance has panelled reveals and a rectangular fanlight above the door. A 20th-century porch on posts has been added, and the windows are 20th-century casements with leaded panes. A local stone wall adjoins the left end, with masonry brought to course and capped with tiles. The Bullen Street elevation features four windows, including a 19th-century shop window. The Post Office door is to the left of the shop window, with a second door to its right. The right side has two first-floor and two ground-floor six-pane sash windows, and two first-floor 20th-century windows with leaded panes.

The hall contains an open fireplace with an oak lintel and ashlar jambs, with a boxed-in axial beam. The rear of the chimney, formerly backing onto the putative passage, is remarkable: the volcanic ashlar stone is carved with two wide recessed panels, presumably in imitation of a plank and muntin screen. The parlour fireplace has an unusual shouldered stone lintel, difficult to date. The lower end room fireplace is constructed of volcanic ashlar with an oak lintel with chambered jambs, and a second flue rises from a small alcove adjacent to the fireplace. On the first floor in the south gable end wall is an aperture approximately one metre high and 0.8 metres wide with a rebated timber frame, possibly a garderobe, as there is a large cavity below adjacent to the lower end stack. Part of a jointed cruck is visible over the hall, though the apex was not inspected. The hall and inner room partition is a large-framed closed truss with wattle and daub infill, part of which is exposed behind glass and is sooted on the hall side. This partition is similar to that found in numbers 10-11 Fore Street, Silverton (Thorp).

The kitchen wing contains a massive open fireplace with a rough, probably replaced oak lintel, a large ash pit, and the remains of at least one oven with a partly rebuilt back. At the right end is a small blocked segmental arch at hearth level connecting to a walk-in smoking chamber. Two crossbeams are present: one chamfered with scroll-stops, one roughly chamfered. A newel stair formerly stood adjacent to the kitchen stack. The first-floor fireplace above has plain volcanic stone jambs and a scroll-nick stopped lintel. The block to the west of the kitchen was formerly a pair of small cottages with two ground-floor rooms divided by a timber frame containing two doorways. The exposed doorway is chamfered with scroll-stops. A plain stone fireplace in the right end wall has an oak lintel. The cottages appear to have functioned as an outbuilding originally: a tethering post is said to have been found behind the wall plaster during renovations. This is an evolved house with many interior features of architectural and historical interest.