The Hoopoe

CHULMLEIGH FORE STREET, (west side), SS 6814 - 6914 Chulmleigh 7/77 The Hoopoe GV II House incorporating restaurant. Early C19. Lath and plaster facade, stone rubble at rear. Slate roof with gable ends. Brick stack at rear right-hand corner. Plan. Single large room used as restaurant to right of passage running from front to rear at left end. The principal room appears originally to have been divided by a central passage into 2 rooms, but the internal partitions have been removed. There is a single fireplace across the rear right-hand angle. Dog-leg staircase projects into, but is screened off from the principal room in its left-hand rear corner; it enters the short connecting passage from the front range through to the rear wing which consists of a 2 storey outshut of 1 unheated room beyond which is a lower lofted kitchen range with a gable end stack, also of 1 room plan. The overall plan is therefore T-shaped. Exterior: 3 storeys. 2 window range. All early C19 16-paned hornless sashes with flush sash boxes. Ground floor has 6 panelled door to left of large double-fronted shop window with 3 tall vertical panes to each side of central recessed doorway. Plain timber fascia with dentilled cornice. Rear outshut has 12 paned sash to ground floor facing courtyard and early C19 3 light casement, 8 panes per light to upper storey, 6 panelled door with bracketted hood to rear kitchen wing also facing courtyard. Interior: cambered brick arch to fireplace in principal room. C19 staircase with stick balusters and turned newels rising through 3 storeys. C19 joinery entirely intact to upper storeys. Early C19 integral corner cupboard to rear range with fielded panelled door. Concealed fireplace to rear range gable end stack. C19 roof structure to main range with 3 king-post trusses. The curtilage of the Hoopoe extends south-eastwards to the rear of the adjoining property, and a blocked doorway in the end entrance passage suggests these two properties were at 1 time in single ownership. The courtyard contains a group of 3 late C18 or early C19 lean-to outbuildings which back onto the rear of Sun Cottage (q.v.), and which contain an axial stack (the shaft demolished) the fireplace having a thin narrow chamfered timber lintel.

Listing NGR: SS6871614215