The Limes

THE LIMES, EAST STREET, CREDITON

House, divided into two (The Limes and No 2 The Limes). Circa 1700, but possibly incorporating part of a medieval building, with alterations and additions of around 1900. The structure is built in stone with the front elevation cement-rendered and blocked out, and the rear and sides roughcast. The circa 1900 additions are in red brick with some slate-hanging, and the roof is slate with stacks featuring brick shafts.

The plan comprises a double-depth main block, two rooms wide, with a central entrance into a stair hall and a rear right service block containing a service stair. A rear left addition of around 1900 provides additional service rooms.

The exterior presents two storeys. The front is symmetrically composed of five bays with plain clasping pilasters, a platband at first floor level and below the parapet, which ramps up to a panel in the centre bay. A central 18th-century timber Tuscan porch contains a recessed six-panel front door with panelled reveals. The front elevation has five first-floor and four ground-floor 12-pane early 18th-century sashes with flush frames and moulded architraves. The return walls have a toothed brick band below the eaves. The left return (The Limes) has one matching first-floor window and a similar window on the return of the extension, presumably re-sited from the rear elevation. A round-headed rear stair window features spoke glazing bars. The circa 1900 rear addition is roofed at right angles to the main block with an M-shaped roof and bullnose brick corners. The right return of the main block (No 2 The Limes) has an Edwardian lean-to porch set back from the front elevation, re-using a panelled door. The rear addition features slate-hanging to the first floor.

The interior contains a mixture of circa 1700 and Victorian and Edwardian fittings. In No 2 The Limes are two bolection-moulded chimney-pieces of circa 1700 on the ground floor (one re-sited from the first floor), one 2-panel door of circa 1700, and Edwardian wall panelling. Other joinery is Victorian, including panelled doors. A painted cast-iron bath with mahogany and pine boxing is dated 1903, which may provide the precise date for the Edwardian phase. The first floor was re-planned in the 1980s. The Limes includes a good 17th-century stair with turned balusters and square newels, introduced or reset circa 1903. Edwardian panelling to the stair hall includes one section of 18th-century fielded panelling on the first floor. A 2-panel door of circa 1700 exists on the ground floor, with other joinery being Victorian or Edwardian. During decoration, the occupier of The Limes discovered a moulded stone archway on the left (west) end wall towards the front, rising to approximately ground floor ceiling level with a pointed head. The wall is slightly thicker than other external walls and is probably medieval. Footings have been found in the garden to the west.

Richard John King, editor of Murray's Guide to Devon and friend of the historian Froude, lived at The Limes. The building and its site may be of considerable archaeological interest. The house pre-dates the 1743 fire of Crediton.