Church House

SX75NW 4/483

NORTH HUISH Church House

GV II Probably a church house, now a private house. Probably early C17, possibly with C16 origins. Rendered stone rubble. Asbestos slate roof with gabled ends. Rendered stacks at gable ends, the left hand end has a large stack with a tapered top to the shaft with slate weathering.

Plan: original plan is uncertain. It is now a two-room plan with a central entrance into a cross-passage. The left hand room has a large gable end fireplace; the right hand room has a smaller and probably later stock. There is a first floor doorway at the back of the left hand end which may have been the original access to the first floor if it were originally a church house. The present straight staircase is probably C19 and rises from the right hand room across the back of the passage. A partition has been inserted into the right hand room to create a kitchen at the back. In the C20 an outshut was added at the centre of the back with a porch in the right hand angle. The outbuilding attached to the left hand end of the front is probably early C19.

Exterior: two storeys. Asymmetrical three-window range. C20 two-light metal frame casements; ground floor right a C20 French window. Central doorway with a late C19 or early C20 glazed door and a stone rubble porch with a lean-to asbestos slate roof and side doorway. A circa early C19 outbuilding on the left hand end of the front built of slate rubble with a slate half-hipped roof, single storey, door at the front; a later lean-to in the angle behind on the left hand gable end. A C20 outshut at the rear with a lean-to porch in the left hand angle. To the right of the outshut a partly blocked first floor doorway.

Interior: there are at least four chamfered cross-beams, all without exposed stops. One beam set into the left hand end wall above a large fireplace, its chamfered lintel appears to have been raised. The ground and first floor partitions are later. Late C20 plasterwork in early C17 style by Mr Lightbown of Totnes includes a single rib ceiling in the ground floor left hand room, a cornice on the first floor landing and a frieze in the first floor left hand room.

Roof: two of the principals at the right end have notched lap jointed collars, mortices for threaded purlins and ridge piece and a mortice and tenoned apex. One of the principals at the left end has a curved foot, the rest are set in the wall tops and have mortices for threaded purlins; and one principal at the centre has a mortice for a missing collar but the opposite principal is not morticed indicating that there has been rearrangement of the roof structure. The rafters, ridge piece and most of the purlins have been replaced.

Listing NGR: SX7117456549