Three Tuns Inn

The Three Tuns Inn, in Barnstaple's High Street, is a house and shop, now a public house, dating from circa 1600. It was substantially renovated by Bruce Oliver in 1946, as noted by Pevsner. The building has a timber-framed front resting on a stone rubble base, with a natural slate roof, hipped at one end, and a right-hand stack featuring a handmade brick shaft. It originally had a gallery and back block plan, with a courtyard which has subsequently been filled in.

The front elevation was largely reconstructed by Oliver in 1946, in a 17th-century style. This includes a jettied second floor, and windows with leaded panes. A five-light oak mullioned window occupies the ground floor, with Tudor arched lights; a chamfered doorway on the left is believed to be partly original. Above this sits a first-floor oriel, supported by timber brackets and with a hipped slate roof, featuring oak moulded mullioned and transomed windows – four lights in the centre, with one to each side. Two shallow, two-light second-floor oriels are also supported by brackets. The front roof is hipped, with a large gabled dormer, the gable and sides clad in slate, and a four-light casement window.

The interior is a mix of original and 1946 features. Several door frames and doors, along with the simple 17th-century style stair that rises to the rear of the courtyard from the back block, are thought to be Oliver’s work. On the ground floor, there are four step-stopped chamfered cross beams and exposed joists. The front right-hand wall has a 20th-century fireplace, while the rear fireplace retains a chamfered, step-stopped lintel, a bread oven, and surviving joisting in the passage. A front room on the first floor has four moulded cross beams, (likely dating from the 1940s), featuring scroll stops carved with leaves. This room's original fireplace has a cranked lintel; the rear fireplace has been renovated but retains one hollow-chamfered jamb, a moulded corbel, and a timber lintel with carved leaf stops. There is also 17th-century wall panelling, showing evidence of re-use.

The gallery is timber-framed, overlooking the courtyard, with some alterations to the trusses supporting the roof – including one removed collar. A restored six-light ovolo-moulded mullioned window looks out over the courtyard from the gallery. There is a small section of 17th-century timber balustrade to the stair leading to the second-floor room (which was not inspected during the survey). An inspection of the roof was not possible but is anticipated to be of interest. Despite the extensive reconstruction, the building remains a fine example of a 17th-century urban house, with the original gallery and back block arrangement still discernible.