Priesthall

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ST OO NE 8/109

KENTISBEARE Kentisbeare PRIESTHILL Priesthall

(Formerly listed as Old Priests House)

24.10.51

II*

Detached house; it was the medieval rectory but already divided into five cottages at the time the 1681 terrier was drawn up. Roughcast cob and rubble; some dressed sandstone; gable-end thatched roof.

Plan: three room through-passage plan house, the service end to the right of the passage. Alcock and Laithwaite deduced that the original house was single-storeyed. The service end first floor is jettied into the hall; and the inserted hall first floor has been removed returning it to its original form. The small room above the passage now forms a gallery. The inner room, still of two storeys, is served by a rear newel stair. Service end heated by internal end stack, hall by front lateral external stone stack; inner room and chamber above served by external end stack.

Exterior Front: Doorway to passage with ogee-headed wooden arch (a comparative rarity in Devon), the door itself with rails, spear-headed strap hinges, and studded. Four-light timber window to inner room, the light each with depressed head, and probably C15. Two-light casmement window to chamfer above. C20 three-light window to hall. Small diagonally-set window to service end.

Rear: two first floor windows, one under eyebrow eave. Hall window is the original, C15, four-lights each trefoil headed with top lights; a later three-light casement has been fixed over the medieval window to afford it protection.

Interior: those features noted by Alcock and Laithwaite survive and are discussed more fully in their article, cited below. (1) three plank and muntin screens, two to screens passage, the first between hall and inner room; (2) service end framed partition; (3) fireplaces; that to the hall with roll moulded surround; that to the service end with chamfered lintel; inner room fireplace with stone roll moulded surround, that to the chamber above with chamfered wooden lintel and chamfered stone jambs; (4) one jointed cruck truss at lower end of passage.

References:

N.W. Alcock and M. Laithwaite, 'Medieval Houses in Devon and their Modernisation', Medieval Archiaeology, 17, (1973), 112-14;

W.A. Pantin, 'Medieval Priests' Houses in South-West England', Medieval Archaeology, 3 (1957), 127-9;

E.S. Chalk, Kentisbeare and Blackborough, Devonshire Association Parachial histories, no. 3.

Listing NGR: ST0674908146