The Bank House (The National Westminster Bank And The Wool Shop)

The Bank House, originally a house divided into two occupations, dates to the early 19th century, and may incorporate earlier fabric. It is located on Fore Street in Chulmleigh. The building is constructed of stuccoed stone rubble, with a slate roof, gable end brick stacks with toothed capping courses, lions head guttering, and an eaves cornice. The plan consists of two rooms deep, with the principal front room on each side of a through-passage. The room to the right was altered in the 20th century and is now a bank, while the room to the left functions as a shop. A kitchen is located to the rear of the right-hand room, and a heated room to the rear of the left-hand room, currently used as a store-room. A principal staircase is located immediately to the left of the through-passage in the rear of the left-hand room, and a secondary, former servants' staircase is to the left of the kitchen fireplace, now disused. Two outhouses, originally at right angles to the front entrance and on each side of the rear courtyard, have been connected to the main range and converted into part of a dwelling. The outhouse on the left side was formerly a lofted stable and has an axial stack, the shaft of which has been removed; it likely functioned as a kitchen when the original house was divided. The exterior is two storeys with four bays, exhibiting rusticated quoins and 19th-century fenestration. The upper storey has 12-pane sash windows with horns, while the ground floor presents two 2-pane sashes to the right, a single 4-pane sash to the left, and two doorways flanking a shop window. The right-hand principal doorway features a pilastered doorcase, panelled reveals, and a 19th-century six-panel door. The entablature is carried over the canted shop window, which has four large panes, and a smaller shop doorway to the left with a pilastered doorcase and a three-quarter glazed door. Inside, the front left-hand room, used as a shop, retains a late 19th-century chimney piece with detached colonnettes and a register grate, flanked by alcoves. Doorways to each side of the through-passage to the rear rooms have segmental pointed Gothick arched surrounds with original four-panelled doors, one on the right. Most of the 19th-century joinery remains on the upper storey. The former stables feature a cobbled floor and a segmental brick arched fireplace. The 19th-century roof structure includes five king post trusses. An early 20th-century timber observatory platform was built within the roof space.