Priesthall

Priesthall is a detached house located in Kentisbeare, Devon. It dates back to the medieval period and was originally the rectory. By 1681, it had already been divided into five cottages. The house is constructed of roughcast cob and rubble, with some dressed sandstone, and has a thatched gable-end roof.

The house follows a three-room through-passage plan, with the service area to the right of the passage. Architectural historians Alcock and Laithwaite believed the original house was single-storeyed. Later alterations included a jettied first floor to the service wing, and an inserted first floor to the hall, which has since been removed to return the hall to its original form. A small room above the passage now functions as a gallery. The inner room retains two storeys and is accessed by a rear newel staircase. The service wing has an internal end stack, the hall has a front lateral external stone stack, and the inner room and its chamber above are served by an external end stack.

The front of the house features a doorway to the passage with a rare ogee-headed wooden arch. The door has rails, spear-headed strap hinges and studs. A four-light timber window with depressed heads, likely from the 15th century, is found in the inner room. A two-light casement window sits above. A 20th-century three-light window is present in the hall, and a small diagonally-set window is in the service wing.

At the rear, there are two first-floor windows, one positioned under an eyebrow eave. The hall window is the original 15th-century four-light window, with trefoil heads to the top lights. A later three-light casement has been fixed in front of the medieval window to provide protection.

Interior features noted by Alcock and Laithwaite remain largely intact. These include three-plank and muntin screens separating the passage, with one between the hall and the inner room, a framed partition in the service wing, fireplaces with various features such as roll-moulded surrounds and chamfered lintels, and a single jointed cruck truss at the lower end of the passage.