Clay Cutters Arms

Public House, originally from the second half of the 16th century or very early 17th century, with the right-hand end possibly earlier. Later additions were made at the front and rear. The building is constructed of roughcast cob and stone with a wheat reed thatched roof, hipped at the left-hand end and half-hipped on the right. The ridge of the far right-hand section is approximately half a metre lower than the rest. A rendered brick chimneystack rises in the left-hand gable, while a red sandstone ashlar stack stands towards the right-hand end of the ridge at the point where the ridge-level drops; stone weathering on the right side of this stack has been adjusted to the lower roof level. A further projecting stack of red sandstone ashlar with added brick shafts projects from the rear wall, off-centre to the right.

The building originally comprised the standard three rooms and a through-passage, with an entrance porch added at the front and a newel stair with a small adjacent room at the rear, behind the hall and inner room. The inner room end is lower and separated from the rest by a solid wall, possibly representing the remains of an earlier house. The lower end has either been remodelled or extended in the 18th or 19th century, with a further range built behind it in the 19th century. A kitchen was added at the rear in the 20th century. The building is two storeys, with a one-and-a-half-storey section at the right-hand end; single-storey additions exist at front and rear.

The front elevation is six windows wide, with the right-hand end having no windows in the second storey. In the fourth bay from the left stands a two-storeyed gabled entrance porch, with the ground storey of stone and the upper storey possibly of timber-framing. The ceiling of the porch features a double ovolo-moulded beam and a late 16th or early 17th century moulded plaster head surrounded by strapwork. The inner door is 20th century, but to the left of it is an original double ovolo-moulded wood post with an ovolo-moulded wood lintel above bearing raised run-out stops. Above the lintel is a moulded plaster cornice. The upper storey of the porch has remains of a wooden oriel window, coved on the underside and possibly with carving under the plaster. Above it, at wall plane, is a 19th-century wood casement window of three lights, each light with eight panes. Above this, part of a moulded timber cornice is visible, apparently with a slated pent roof built over. To the left of the porch is a single-storeyed 19th-century projection with a flat roof, containing a two-pane sash window to the right and a plank door to the left, set back slightly. Further left are two wood casement windows of two lights, each light with three panes. To the right of the porch are three wood casement windows; the centre one is a former doorway. The two outer casements are of two lights, the left-hand one with three panes per light and the right-hand one with six panes per light; the former doorway has a fixed sash of 12 panes. In the second storey, the first, third and fifth windows from the left are two-light wood casements with three panes per light, while the second window from the left is a single-light wood casement of six panes. The right-hand window is a three-light wood casement with three panes in the centre light and six panes in each outer light, set in an oriel of probable late 16th or early 17th-century date, projecting on four moulded corbels. Between the middle two corbels is a granite block carved with the date 1666, reportedly re-cut from an original date of 1606. The lower right-hand section has a plank door to the right in the ground storey and a two-light wood casement window with eight panes per light to the left.

Interior: The divisions between the hall, passage and lower room have been removed to form a single bar-room. The hall contains two ovolo-moulded beams with raised run-out stops, a half-beam at the upper end and a full-beam in the centre, with joists at either side bearing very small ovolo mouldings. In the rear wall is a corbelled granite chimneypiece, a rare feature in rural Devon buildings. The left-hand side appears to have been cut away, but the right jamb is hollow-moulded, supporting an ovolo-moulded corbel and a chamfered lintel; above it is a very small relieving arch. To the right of the chimneypiece is a door with a straight-headed chamfered wood frame with step-stops and an ovolo-moulded wood lintel above bearing step-stops. In the upper end wall, to the left, is a door with a similar frame, and to the right, a small wall-cupboard with late 16th or early 17th-century panelled doors on elaborated butterfly hinges.

The inner room to the right of the hall has a chamfered beam without visible stops. Behind it projects a newel stair, with the head of the newel-post carved with chamfer-stops. On the ground storey, one side of the doorframe into the stair survives. The former through-passage has plain joists above, with the front door bearing a chamfered lintel. The portion of the lower end adjacent to it also has plain joists and a chamfered beam with step-stops. The far left-hand end of the bar room has much thinner joists and is either a later addition or has been remodelled.

In the second storey, the upper end wall of the room over the hall (now the toilet) displays a late 16th or very early 17th-century piece of moulded plasterwork, probably the overmantel of a fireplace. A pair of fluted pilasters support a moulded cornice, upon which stand two further fluted pilasters with enriched Ionic capitals, linked by a cornice. Between them is a pre-Jacobean royal coat-of-arms with the initials ER. This room features the dated oriel window mentioned above and was clearly part of a larger room of high quality. The room over the entrance porch has a door with a chamfered wood frame bearing a cranked head.

The roof over the hall, passage and adjacent part of the lower room comprises three side-pegged jointed cruck trusses with through purlins. The apex of the roof over the hall was not inspected, but the truss over the division between hall and passage is clean on the passage side, having had a partition built into it at a later date.

The building is recorded as having been divided into four cottages at one time, with the left-hand cottage alone serving as the public house.