Church House

This is probably a church house, later adapted for use as a private house. The building likely originated in the early 17th century, with possible origins in the 16th century. It is constructed of rendered stone rubble, with an asbestos slate roof and gabled ends. The left-hand gable end features a large rendered stack with a tapered shaft and slate weathering.

The original layout is uncertain, but the building is now arranged with a two-room plan and a central entrance leading to a cross-passage. The left-hand room has a large gable end fireplace; the right-hand room contains a smaller, likely later, stack. A first-floor doorway at the rear of the left-hand end may have provided access to the first floor if it were originally a church house. A Victorian staircase rises from the right-hand room across the back of the passage. A partition within the right-hand room creates a kitchen at the rear. A 20th-century outshut with a porch at the right-hand angle was added to the rear, and an early 19th-century outbuilding is attached to the left-hand end of the front, built of slate rubble with a slate half-hipped roof, a front door, and a later lean-to against the left-hand gable end. A 20th-century outshut is located at the rear, with a lean-to porch in the left-hand angle. A partly blocked first-floor doorway is situated to the right of the outshut.

The exterior features an asymmetrical three-window front. The windows are 20th-century metal frame casements, with a 20th-century French window on the ground floor to the right of the entrance. The central doorway has a late 19th- or early 20th-century glazed door and a stone rubble porch with a lean-to asbestos slate roof and a side doorway.

Inside, there are at least four chamfered crossbeams, none of which have exposed stops. One beam is set into the left-hand end wall above a large fireplace, and its chamfered lintel appears to have been raised. The ground and first floor partitions are later additions. Late 20th-century plasterwork, designed in an early 17th-century 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.

The roof structure shows evidence of alterations. Two principals at the right end have notched lap jointed collars, mortices for threaded purlins and a ridge piece, and an apex joint. One principal at the left end has a curved foot. Most principals are set in the wall tops and have mortices for threaded purlins. One principal at the centre has a mortice for a missing collar, but the opposite principal is not morticed, indicating a rearrangement of the roof structure. The rafters, ridge piece, and most of the purlins have been replaced.