Grilstone

Grilstone is a house probably dating from 1834, representing an extension and remodelling of a 17th-century or earlier building. It was commissioned by the Reverend William Thorne and the 1834 work is probably by J. Cock of South Molton, who also built the rectory for Joseph Thorne, William Thorne's son.

The building is constructed of colourwashed plastered cob and stone rubble, with the north-east end (the earlier part) built of stone rubble. The roofs are bitumen-painted slate. The north-east wing is gabled at both ends with a lower roofline, whilst the main range is hipped at the left end and gabled at the right end with deep eaves on shaped eaves brackets. The structure features two axial chimney stacks in the main range and a rear left lateral stack; the north-east wing has back-to-back fireplaces in an axial stack.

The plan comprises a single-depth north-east service wing to the right, two rooms wide, which is 17th-century or earlier and represents the earliest part of the house. The main range adjoins this at the left, running on the same axis and measuring two rooms wide by double depth. It contains two principal rooms flanking a main entrance passage which houses the main stair, with narrow rooms behind the principal rooms. A service entrance into a passage containing a stair is located at the extreme right end of the main block. Internal evidence suggests that the left end of the 17th-century house underwent rebuilding and upgrading in the 18th century before the more extensive remodelling of the 1830s.

The exterior is two storeys with an asymmetrical front of four windows to the left and three to the right. The three right-hand windows serve the earlier wing which is set back. The main range displays early 19th-century regular fenestration and doors. An 1830s Doric portico with entablature and cornice on brackets marks the first bay from the left. A recessed 19th-century panelled front door with glazed upper panels sits within this portico, flanked by 24-pane sashes. Four 16-pane sashes light the first floor. The service door in the right-hand bay of the main range is 19th-century with glazed upper panels and a 19th-century trellis porch. The left return of the main range has two bays with a 19th-century half-glazed door to the left into the study, topped by an overlight retaining remains of 1830s painted glass. A 24-pane sash lights the principal room to the front, with two first-floor 16-pane sashes above. The service wing has 19th or 20th-century casement windows with timber glazing bars, except for a 5-light casement at ground floor right which may be 17th-century. The rear elevation of the main range retains an early 19th-century round-headed stair window with margin panes.

The interior of the service wing preserves a rough crossbeam and jointed cruck roof construction, which could be late medieval and is almost certainly pre-1650. Two 17th-century plank and stud doors survive: one upstairs with chamfered jambs, and one (probably re-sited) in the main range on the ground floor. Pre-19th-century features in the main range include an 18th-century service stair and an 18th-century fitted cupboard in the first room from the left with fielded panels and butterfly hinges. High-quality 1830s features include an open string mahogany stair with a ramped wreathed handrail, shutters, doors, chimney-pieces, a plaster ceiling frieze and cornice in the ground floor front left room, arched wall recesses, and a reeded arch with rosettes between the entrance passage and the main stair.

The house forms a good group with 19th-century and earlier farm buildings to the north and west. Grilstone was owned by a family of the same name in the 13th and 14th centuries, when a chapel was licensed here in 1374. In the 16th and 17th centuries it was owned by the Pollard family.