Bull House

Bull House is a large house on Bull Hill in Pilton, Barnstaple, dating probably from the 15th century with significant enlargement and partial rebuilding in the early to mid-16th century, plus a minor 19th-century addition.

The building is constructed of roughly-coursed stone rubble with details in at least two types of local dressed stone and some limestone. The roof is pantiled with long stretches of old crested ridge-tiles. It has three stone rubble chimneys, two with tops rebuilt in red brick, and two old red brick chimneys with a third in early 20th-century brick.

The 15th-century range consists of a three-room and through-passage arrangement at right-angles to the street, with an open hall featuring original storeyed ends. At the upper end are the remains of a narrow fourth room, apparently containing a garderobe. This room was partly demolished in the early 16th century to add a two-room storeyed cross-wing at an acute angle to the original range. A newel stair sits in the angle with an external passage from the hall. At the front of the cross-wing, at a slightly less acute angle, stands a gatehouse, probably earlier than the wing. A 19th-century rear extension was added against the front of the 15th-century range.

The building is two storeys throughout except for the open hall. The east face of the hall features a much-restored chamfered doorway with a four-centred arch. Two mullioned-and-transomed two-light hall windows have Tudor-arched lights top and bottom, with straight hoodmoulds and relieving arches showing some original masonry. The ground-storey window to the lower end room was removed and replaced by a doorway, now converted back to a window with a wood-framed casement. Above is a restored two-light Tudor-arched window. At the left-hand end is a 20th-century wood casement window with a restored two-light Tudor-arched window above.

The cross-wing and gatehouse present a six-window range to Bull Hill. At the right-hand end is an almost unrestored doorway to the gatehouse in local purple stone, with hollow and ogee moulding, a four-centred arch with carved spandrels and large claw-like stops. All ground-storey windows are 20th-century with flat-headed mullioned-and-transomed lights. The upper storey has two- and three-light Tudor-arched windows; those in the gatehouse appear entirely 20th-century, but those in the wing contain substantial amounts of original masonry, including straight hoodmoulds, the centre one bearing initials RB. The gatehouse has a top string course and original crenellated parapet, extending on to the right side wall. The latter has two 20th-century Tudor-arched windows.

The left gable-end of the wing has a single upper-storey window with two Tudor-arched lights and a straight hoodmould with carved terminals showing some old masonry. Overlapping the hoodmould is a projecting garderobe with a slated lean-to roof and a small trefoil-headed limestone window in the upper storey. The stair turret and passage (properly visible only from the adjacent property Medina) has a crenellated parapet and a partly restored two-light Tudor-arched window with hoodmould in the upper storey, with a similar three-light window below, two of its lights now blocked.

Interior: The rear door of the through-passage is blocked, with a relieving-arch visible. The whole 15th-century range has a continuous open arch-braced roof with two tiers of chamfered butt-purlins and chamfered, curved windbraces below the lower tier. Scratched carpenter's marks are visible and the moulded wall-plates are original. All trusses have cranked collars and chamfered arch-braces, except the partition trusses which have plain braces. The partition studs below are surprisingly thin and appear original; between two of those at the lower end is a wooden quatrefoil spy-hole which was blocked by upper-floor beams in the hall until around 1964. Beneath the upper end partition is a stud-and-panel partition with an infilled former doorway using re-used studding. Another stud-and-panel partition at the lower end features scroll stops and was brought from the gatehouse, where it had been used as wall panelling, though it fills original mortices in the partition beam overhead. Upper rooms at both ends have very thick, square floor joists.

At the left-hand end of the rear wall of the hall is a segmental-arched doorway without mouldings. Immediately to its right is a square-headed stone fireplace with a chamfered surround; the roof timbers show no sign of smoke-blackening or of a louvre. The ground-floor room at the upper end has an end wall chimney with a visible relieving arch. The purlins continue beyond the chimney and the rear purlin has a step-stop against it, which is unusual.

The stair passage at the rear of the hall has four stone doorways with four-centred arches. The one to the upper end room is chamfered with diagonal-cut stops. The one to the cellar below the same room is chamfered without stops; below it is a rebated cellar doorway and to its right a stone quatrefoil opening to a squint. The doorways to the stair and wing have ogee and hollow mouldings with claw-like stops matching those on the front door.

The rear ground-floor wing room has a wooden ceiling of intersecting beams, heavily moulded with half and three-quarter round mouldings; plain joists are set in different directions in alternate panels, in a chequer pattern. Faint traces of painted decoration appear on the beams. At the front end is a stud-and-panel partition with narrow chamfered studs without stops and a doorway with a flattened Tudor arch. The rear (north) wall contains a blocked, two-light Tudor-arched stone window.

The front wing room has 17th-century panelling with small ovolo-moulded panels. A stone chamfered fireplace with a very slightly curved head and pyramid stops is present, with two rows of herringbone tiling in the fire-back. The ceiling has plain beams and joists. To the left of the fireplace is a garderobe with a small round-arched stone window; beneath it is a barrel-vaulted stone drain flushed by a natural spring. A chamfered, round-arched stone doorway with diagonal-cut stops leads into the 15th-century upper end room.

The gatehouse has a large, moulded stone doorway in its rear wall with attached shafts supporting a four-centred arch. Between it and the front door is a piece of moulded wood ceiling like that in the rear wing room.

On the first floor, the stair passage has four stone doorways with four-centred arches, three of them chamfered with pyramid stops. The doorway to the wing has hollow and ogee moulding with claw-like stops. The two window rooms were combined around 1970; the former partition had studs like those in the hall with horizontal laths let into grooves in their sides. A continuous arch-braced roof with two tiers of unchamfered through-purlins is present, with straight collars and moulded braces, plus moulded wall-plates. The front room has two tiers of arched windbraces. Each room has a stone fireplace with a chamfered surround and pyramid stops with rounded top corners; the front room fireplace is in the front wall, the rear room one in the rear wall. The latter's chimney slightly overlaps a 16th-century window beside it. The upper room of the gatehouse has in its rear wall a blocked stone 16th-century window with two Tudor-arched lights and hooks for internal shutters.

Historical Note: The house belonged to Pilton Priory at the Dissolution, when it passed to the Bret family, who held it until 1593. Robert Bret (died 1540) was the last steward of the priory, and his widow, Thomasine, appears to have acquired the freehold soon afterwards. The initials RB appearing on the window of the cross-wing probably belong to Robert. Although it is commonly assumed that this was the prior's house in the 15th century, evidence is lacking, and the north wall of the Parish Church of St Mary bears marks of what are generally believed to be the former priory buildings.

Bull House is one of the best-preserved late medieval houses in Devon and has been carefully restored.