16, Fore Street

This is a house with origins in the 17th century, though the front elevation was remodelled around 1855 as a shop and again in 1955. The construction is colourwashed rendered cob, resting on stone rubble footings, with a thatched roof, half-hipped at the rear wing. A slate roof covers the room above the passageway to the left of the main range, and there are chimneys with brick shafts at the left end of the main range and the right end of the rear ridge. The house has an unusual layout, featuring a large, heated room at the front and rear service rooms under a separate roof at a right angle to the main one. It has no thick internal walls, and the rear right service room is heated, sharing a stack with the adjacent property, Exeter House. The principal front room clearly dates to the 17th century, with a rounded wall near the left-end stack, likely indicating the original position of a newel stair. The current staircase leads from the rear services to the first floor. It is possible that the building represents the left-hand end of a larger, U-shaped house with rear service wings to the left and right, and that it was formerly part of a single property with Exeter House and Exeter Cottage, with the rear courtyard subsequently filled in. This would explain the unusual roof arrangement. The roof trusses are likely replacements from the mid- to late 18th century. The room above the passageway to the left is a later addition, probably from the 19th century. Around 1855, the front was remodelled as a shop with a central doorway flanked by bay windows; this was replaced in 1955 with a large five-light window, and a new entrance was created on the left return for direct access to the principal ground floor room. The house is two storeys high and has an asymmetrical two-window front, with an additional room above the passageway. The ground floor has a large five-light window from 1955 with small panes. The first-floor window to the left is a 19th-century tripartite sash with four panes in the outer lights and 12 in the centre. The first-floor window to the right is a four-pane sash. The interior of the principal ground floor room features a large axial beam, exposed joists, and an open fireplace with breccia ashlar jambs and a lintel with chamfered scroll stops. The interior is largely free of 20th-century modernization and retains some original gas fittings. Mid- to late 18th-century pegged collar rafter roof trusses have been reinforced with 20th-century timbers. The roofspace contains a late 17th-century timber mullioned window, formerly external but now set into the dividing wall between the roofspace and the room over the passageway. No. 16 stands in the centre of Fore Street and forms a group with Drake's Farm opposite and numbers 26 and 28.