Numbers 128 And 129 Shute

Numbers 128 and 129 Shute is a house that has been divided into two residences. It dates from the mid to late 16th century, with improvements made in the 17th century, and was subdivided in the 19th century. The building is constructed of plastered cob on rubble footings, with volcanic stone stacks topped with 19th-century brick and a thatched roof. Originally, it was a three-room-and-through-passage house facing south. Number 128 occupies the former hall, with a service room to the right (east), while Number 129 occupies the inner room at the left (west) end. There is an end stack to the service room and a lateral stack that projects to the front of the hall.

The house has two storeys and features a four-window front with late 19th and 20th-century casements, some of which have glazing bars. The three half-dormers on the first floor of Number 128 have thatched gables. The passage door for Number 128, located to the right of the stack, has a late 16th to early 17th-century oak ovolo-moulded door frame. There is a secondary door for Number 129 at the left end, and the window in the inner room has been blocked with early 20th-century brickwork. The hall stack features a probably original plastered chimney shaft topped with brick.

Inside, most features are from the 19th century, which conceal earlier elements. The rear passage doorframe and the doorframe in the cob passage-hall crosswall have chamfered surrounds, although the stops have worn off. At the upper end of the hall, a bead beam survives from a 16th-century oak plank-and-muntin screen with an internal jetty above. The hall also has a 17th-century chamfered and scroll-stopped crossbeam. In Number 129, one side-pegged jointed cruck roof truss is exposed.