Pilton House

Pilton House is a large house that now serves as a residential home. It was built in 1746 according to documentary evidence, likely on the site of an earlier house, and was remodeled in the first half of the 19th century and again around 1900. The building is plastered and features a hipped slate roof behind a parapet, with stacks that have rendered shafts, moulded cornices, and old pots.

The house has a deep plan, is two rooms wide, and has a symmetrical seven-bay front. The front block includes probably 19th-century canted bays at either end and a central entrance. A service courtyard is located to the northwest, and a 20th-century single-storey wing has been added to the northeast. The plain parapet is complemented by a moulded string below and simple coping. The corners of the building are accentuated with rusticated quoins, and there is a platband at the first-floor level.

The windows are adorned with moulded architraves, and there are steps leading up to a central Doric porch that has a tiled roof, two columns on either side, and a pedimented gable featuring a triglyph frieze, guttae, and moulded brackets. The main entrance has a six-panel door. Most windows are fitted with 9 over 9-pane sashes, except for the outer ground-floor windows, which have been altered to high transomed casements. Similar casements are found on the canted end on the east side. The return elevations also feature sash windows, and there is a lower-roofed service block attached at the north end, which has a gabled slate roof and an end stack with old pots. A wing that projects at right angles to the main range of the house fronts onto a small service or stable yard, bordered by a tall coped wall to the south.

The interior has only been partially inspected, but 19th-century joinery remains, and there may be other interesting features. Historically, Reed notes that the house was built in 1746 for Robert Incledon, and two successive Incledons who lived there served as Recorders of Barnstaple. James Whyte, who owned the house from 1806 for over 40 years, was likely responsible for some of the remodeling.