Lapford Mill House

Lapford Mill House

A mill house dating to around the 15th century, with possible origins in the 14th century, originally part of a corn-mill complex. It served as a village post office from the mid-19th century until the late 20th century and was extended in the second half of the 20th century. A modern single-storey glazed timber porch is attached at right angles to the south side but is excluded from this listing.

The building has a jointed-cruck frame with cob walls rendered in modern cement on a stone plinth. The extensions are of rendered brick and stone with a tile roof throughout. The plan is a single-depth rectangular building with a lean-to on the north side, aligned east to west.

The south elevation features a 12-pane double-leaf casement window to the left of a lateral chimney. The chimney has an attached cloam oven and a large brick stack rising from the roof. To the right are two curved 24-pane bay windows with two 24-pane dormer windows above. A 1970s two-storey flat-roofed extension with multi-pane windows on both floors and the modern entrance is positioned to the right. The east end, built into the adjacent bank, has a tall rendered end stack. The west elevation has irregular fenestration, with one ground-floor window and two first-floor casement windows. The mid-20th-century pitched lean-to on the north elevation includes a partially-glazed 20th-century door and casement windows at either end, with a single-storey flat-roofed late-20th-century infill extension between the house and the boundary wall.

The interior is accessed through the 1970s extension. An opening in the formerly external cob wall leads into the smaller of two ground-floor rooms divided by an oak plank-and-muntin partition on an exposed stone plinth, indicating that the floor level has been lowered. The partition contains a plank door with applied fillets on one side; although the timber appears ancient, the door furniture is later and the door may have been reused when the floor level was altered. The face of the partition facing the larger western room is decorated with chamfer-and-stop detailing, denoting its higher status. The smaller room has exposed timber ceiling joists and an arched alcove that may be an infilled doorway. The larger western room has exposed ceiling timbers including a central chamfered cross beam and joists. An inglenook fireplace occupies the middle of the south wall, topped by a large oak bressumer supported at one end by a timber corbel and at the other by the cob wall. Within the fireplace is a cloam oven with a metal door on the right, and on the left a small alcove beneath a conical funnel that corresponds with a basin in the room above. Built-in cupboards within the south and west walls may relate to the building's former use as a post office. A staircase with a late-20th-century timber stick banister leads up from the lean-to.

The first floor contains three bedrooms and a bathroom, with a shower room in the 1970s eastern extension. The central bedroom, situated above the inglenook, displays the chimney breast with a timber ledge incorporating a sunken basin that corresponds with the funnel visible in the fireplace below. A fragment of a jointed cruck is visible in this room. The west-end bedroom has a blocked window. The 1940s roof structure encloses the earlier smoke-blackened jointed-cruck frame, including purlins, rafters and ridge beam. A fragment of lath-and-plaster partition survives in the attic.