Comfort House

Comfort House

A substantial house on the west side of Bradninch Fore Street, dating from the 15th century but extensively enlarged and remodelled in 1681 for Isack Watts, a wool merchant, and his wife Mary. The building is constructed of cob with a stone plinth, plastered, and covered with a wheat reed thatched roof, hipped to the right-hand end and adjoining number 50 to the left-hand side.

The house originally followed a 3-room, through-passage plan with the higher end (retaining medieval smoke-blackened roof timbers) positioned to the right of the passage. The lower end was a single unit that was enlarged in 1681 with the addition of a rear wing. The 1681 remodelling also introduced a 2-storey central front porch and a complete refenestration of the main range. Three chimney stacks are present: one heating the parlour at the right-hand end, an exterior rear lateral stack serving the hall, and another stack standing forward of the junction between the rear wing and main range roof ridges. All three stacks have brick shafts with some brickwork appearing to date from the 17th century.

The front elevation is symmetrical and presents the appearance of the 1681 works, with the date and initials IW and MW inscribed on the porch. A 4-window range frames a central porch. The porch features a gabled, thatched roof with bargeboards, a central pendant, and a boarded gable (these latter elements are 19th-century additions). Above the porch is one 2-light casement window, and below it stands an open passage with an original chamfered bressumer resting on 20th-century circular posts. The windows of the main range consist of 2 horizontal sliding 9-pane sashes with heavy surrounds. The first-floor sashes are original and retain crown glass; those on the ground floor are careful 20th-century replicas.

The rear elevation displays one single and one 3-light 20th-century casement windows with glazing bars above, with 20th-century lean-to extensions below. The long lower-end wing has three casement windows to its upper floor: one of 2 lights with 8 leaded panes to one light and 4 to the other; one of 4 lights with 15 panes per light, the outer lights fixed; and another of 2 lights with 3 panes per light. The ground floor of the wing contains 2 doors and one 2-light window, with one 2-light and two 3-light windows to the end of the wing, together with the remains of a former end stack.

Interior features include a hall with intersecting beams forming a grid of 4 squares. These beams are decorated with combined cyma recta and concave moulding (now damaged) and run-out stops. A 18th-century semi-circular headed ribbed recess with moulded surround is present, along with panelled internal shutters and two early 18th-century wide fielded panel doors, one of which opens onto a staircase with 18th-century (or possibly earlier) treads and risers. The parlour has a small chamfered cross beam. A room to the left of the passage features one axial beam with cyma reversa moulding, run-out stops with a bar, an 18th-century scratch moulded window-recess surround, and a panelled door from the passage.

The roof structure spans 6 bays, comprising a 3-bay medieval hall (with passage) and a 1-bay parlour, all displaying evidence of smoke-blackening. The medieval roof timbers show varied construction and condition. One medieval truss has been replaced in the 17th century with crossed and morticed principals at the apex. The truss above the passage (possibly an upper cruck) is lightly sooted at the lower end and more heavily sooted at the upper end; it was formerly closed and features principals with a cranked collar, arched braces, yoke, and side pegging and morticing, with a small V-notch for the ridge piece. A neighbouring truss of identical construction lacks the arched brace and was never closed. The truss between hall and parlour was formerly closed and has a cranked collar with blades simply crossed, morticed and side-pegged. Rafters and much battening are sooted over the hall; the ridge-piece is lightly sooted over the parlour. A single 17th-century lower-end truss has principals crossed, halved and pegged at the apex.

The building is 2 storeys throughout.