58 And 60, Fore Street

The property at 58 and 60 Fore Street is a house, originally dating to around the 15th century, with significant remodelling taking place circa the 1830s. It is constructed of rendered cob with a low-pitched Welsh slate roof, hipped at the east end. The building has axial and lateral stacks with rebuilt brick shafts.

The original plan comprised a three-room layout and a through-passage, with the eastern end (now occupied by No. 60) originally featuring a through-passage, hall, and inner room. No. 58 incorporates the hall, which was initially open to the roof and heated by an open hearth. Around the 1830s, the house was remodeled, with eaves raised and the front refenestrated. A wing was added to the rear of the lower end, and a range of outbuildings behind the western high end was created, later converted into dwelling accommodation and a garage.

The south front is asymmetrical, featuring five windows arranged with 4-, 12-, 16-, and 20-pane sash windows, plus two circa 1900 canted bay windows with stained glass. A former through-passage doorway is centrally located, with a panelled door and canopy supported by console brackets, and another door is situated to the right. The east return has a pointed arch window and a three-light casement on the first floor. The rear, north-facing elevation includes a hipped roof wing on the left, a two-storey outshut at the centre with a margin-pane sash window on the first floor, and a long range of outbuildings on the right, substantially reconstructed around the year 2000.

The interior mainly reflects the 1830s remodelling, with joinery of that period including panelled doors, moulded door architraves, panelled window shutters, and late 19th-century fireplaces. The early 19th-century stick baluster staircase with column newels is believed to have been relocated from another building. A fine plank-and-muntin screen with a moulded Tudor arch doorway is located on the higher side of the through-passage; the lower section is missing. A post and lower section of a side-pegged jointed-cruck-truss with evidence of smoke-blackening is visible at the rear of the former hall. A 19th-century king-post roof structure is present. The interior of No. 60 was not inspected. The building represents an 1830s remodelling of a traditional Devon Medieval house and possesses considerable townscape value.