4 and 5 Gravel Walk

Pair of semi-detached houses, formerly one house. Early-C17, with later modifications and extensions.

MATERIALS: built from cob, plastered over, on a stone plinth, with an asbestos-tile hipped roof with brick stacks.

PLAN: formerly a three-room, through-passage plan house. Number 4, to the right of the entrance to the former central through-passage, has a shallow rear wing to the former inner room. The narrow rear rooms to number 5 and the rear winder-stair turret appear to be early-C17.

EXTERIOR: two storeys with a four-window range to the front elevation. Two and three-light C20 barred casement windows to the first floor, with two three-light and one five-light windows to the ground floor, all C20 barred casements. Both front entrances are under slate-roofed, open porches. The door to the former through-passage, now access to number 5, has a moulded door-surround. To the rear there have been considerable C20 alterations, but the three-light stair-turret window with chamfered jambs and mullions to number 5 survives (although much repaired) along with an early-C19 three-light window with shallow chamfered jambs and mullions and a ring latch. There is an axial chimney stack backing onto the through-passage, and a chimney stack at the left-hand end emerges from front roof slope; there is evidence to suggest there was a large external lateral chimney stack to the right-hand side rear.

INTERIOR: the former through passage has one chamfered cross beam with hollow step stops, with the far doorway now blocked. Within number 5 is the former hall with a large fireplace with stone jambs and a wooden lintel with an ovolo moulding which is carried uninterrupted through rounded corners. There are three cross beams with cyma reversa mouldings and hollow step stops, and a post and wattle screen dividing the hall from the inner room with a deeply-chamfered unstopped beam to its ceiling. The original chamfered door surround to the stair turret within number 5 survives, as does that between the stairs and the rear room, the latter with stops. The stairs have the remains of late-C17 or early-C18 splat balusters and a turned newel. On the first floor there are two C17 doorframes, although one only partially survives, and a screen dividing the front rooms from the back rooms with unchamfered muntins. The room above the hall has a chamfered fireplace, which has been treated in the fashion of the hall fireplace. The roof is of four bays to the main range, with the principals morticed and side-pegged. One of the two trusses to the rear wing has a saddle and is side-pegged.

The building was formerly listed as CULLOMPTON GRAVEL WALK, Cullompton ST 00 NW 10/110 Nos. 4 and 5.