Pool House

Pool House is a detached house, formerly a farmhouse, located in Kentisbeare. Probably dating from the late 15th or early 16th century, it was completely remodelled in the 17th century with later alterations. The building is constructed of roughcast cob and stone with a gable-end pantiled roof.

The medieval house originally followed a 3-room, through-passage plan. The medieval roof of jointed cruck construction survives. The hall and passage, occupying 2 bays, were originally open to the roof, with timbers that are smoke-blackened from the open hearth. The service end (probably of 2 bays) and the inner room (originally probably of one bay) were either of 2 storeys or unheated, or both. The cruck trusses over the hall are of a distinctive construction, with chamfered arched braces, which probably reflects the greater importance of the room rather than a different build date. The hall and passage are divided from the service end by a plaster and wattle partition that rises through the entire height and closes into the truss to which it is attached. This truss unusually is a collar rafter truss rather than a jointed cruck, and is smoke-blackened on the hall side only.

During the 17th century, the owners of Pool imposed a 2-room, through-passage plan on the existing structure, presumably for reasons of structural stability. The hall stack was inserted adjacent to the central jointed cruck truss of the hall, backing onto an exceptionally wide passage. Part of the old hall and an extended inner room now form a single room to the left, with a long service end to the right. At the same time, an unheated wing was added to the rear of the service end, and a barn set forward of the house but connected to the gable end of the left-hand room. The house has an axial stack and an internal service-end (right-hand) end stack.

The building is 2 storeys. The front has a 4-window range with 2 and 3 light casement windows to both the first and ground floors. The left-hand end dates from the 19th century and has no windows and a brick gable wall. A 20th-century lean-to is attached to the right-hand end. The rear has 2 and 3 light casement windows, largely of the 19th century, except at the rear wing end where a ground-floor 2-light window occupies a 17th-century embrasure that retains its cyma recta moulded lintel, visible internally. The service-end windows (3-light casement to the first floor, 4-light to the ground floor) are possibly set in early embrasures.

Inside the left-hand room, an axial ceiling beam is chamfered with eroded stops and a sort of keystone carved in the timber at its centre. The fireplace is of random rubble with a chamfered timber lintel bearing eroded stops. The right-hand room has 3 cross ceiling beams, all chamfered with hollow step stops, one resting on a post. The rear wing has a roughly chamfered cross ceiling beam, and the rear window lintel as described above.

The roof comprises 3 hall trusses with yoke and chamfered arched braces. The lower blades of the arch brace are cut from the same timber as the lower blade of the truss, while the upper ones are morticed. A diagonal ridge piece runs throughout, with cranked collars. The central truss to the former hall has lost its lower rear blade, which now rests on a turned debased Ionic column, visible in the present bathroom and inserted in the 17th century.