The Old Post Office

The Old Post Office is a house with origins in the 17th century, and with additions and alterations dating to the 19th century and 20th century. It was formerly used as a schoolroom, a post office, and a cobbler’s shop. The exterior is a combination of cob above stone rubble, with whitewashed and rendered surfaces, and has a thatched roof that is gabled at the left end of the main range and hipped at the right end. The right end of the house extends down as a verandah supported by rustic posts, which continues around the right-hand side and the centre of the front elevation. A single-storey addition, slightly set-back, is positioned at the left end with a thatched roof, half-hipped at the left end. A brick stack is located at the left end of the main range, and another axial stack features paired brick shafts.

The house originally had a single-depth plan, with a core dating back to the 17th century extending from the left-hand side of the main range to the axial stack. This section of the house may have been a two-room plan house, with heated rooms on either side of a wide central passage containing a stair to the rear. In the early 19th century, a one-room plan extension was added at the right end, believed to have been a purpose-built schoolroom. A further single-storey addition, also one room in plan, was built at the left end. 20th-century renovations have included replacement windows.

The front elevation is two storeys high, with a two-window and four-window arrangement. The thatch slopes down to form a verandah on posts, and a 20th-century front door is located to the left of the centre, leading into a passage. The main range has 2-light casement windows with square leaded panes; four windows are on the ground floor, and two are on the first floor. A raking dormer is set into the thatch on the right-hand side of the first floor. The former post office, adjacent to the left end, has a central doorway with timber small-pane casements on either side.

Inside, features of interest include an open fireplace in the left-hand room of the main range, with breccia jambs (the lintel has been replaced), a 17th-century chamfered cross beam with ogee stops and exposed joists, and a surviving 18th-century iron casement with shutters and square leaded panes. The right-hand heated room has a similar cross beam, with one ogee stop visible, and an open fireplace with a chamfered elm lintel featuring also ogee stops. The three roof trusses above these rooms are 17th-century collar rafter trusses with straight principal rafters, mortised at the apex, with the original rafters and battens intact. The left-hand partition in the entrance passage extends upwards into the roofspace as a plastered partition. There is evidence that the ceiling of the right-hand room has been lowered. The first-floor ceiling of the 19th-century addition on the right is a plaster groin vault, an unusually elaborate feature for a schoolroom. This is a mid to late 17th-century house with a fascinating history of additions and re-use.