The Priest'S House

The Priest's House

This is a detached building, probably dating from the late 15th or early 16th century, likely serving as a detached kitchen or possibly a church house. It has undergone substantial 20th-century alterations.

The building is constructed of dressed coursed Heavitree brecchia with a thatched roof gabled at the ends. A stack projects from the right end, and a slightly projecting corbelled first-floor stack originally stood on the rear wall, though the shaft has since been dismantled.

The original function remains unclear, though a 1679 description records it as "an old house built with stone and covered with reed, two parts (i.e. rooms) in the bottoms, one in the top, one oven to bake standing in the chimney and place to brew". The building may have been a detached kitchen to a now-vanished house, or possibly a church ale and bake house with a public room on the first floor.

The ground floor is divided by an internal stone wall into a large heated room on the right and a narrow unheated room on the left. Opposed front and rear doorways provide direct access into the heated room. The first floor consists of a single room heated by the stack on the rear wall, accessed externally via a straight stair beside the left end wall. A single-storey lean-to adjoins the left end in brick, though its front wall is Heavitree brecchia, suggesting the building may have extended further left. A short section of brecchia walling at right angles to the front may also be part of the early arrangement.

The front elevation is asymmetrical with two storeys and two windows. At the extreme left, steps lead to a Tudor arched rebated doorway accessing the stair. A 2-centred chamfered arched doorway, positioned right of centre, has brecchia voussoirs. To its right is a window with voussoirs and a cranked head with 20th-century glazing. To the left of the doorway is a probably inserted rectangular window with 20th-century glazing, with a 1-light chamfered window above it. A second similar first-floor window to the right is partly obscured by foliage. The rear elevation features a blocked 2-centred chamfered doorway and a first-floor slightly projecting corbelled stack to the right. Multiple first and ground-floor windows appear to be 20th-century insertions.

Internally, the ground floor contains a massive fireplace with a segmental brecchia arch. To the left of the fireplace is a rounded recess, possibly an oven. A 2-centred chamfered stopped stone doorway in the internal wall leads to the unheated room on the left. The 20th-century ceiling replacement makes it difficult to determine whether a second cross wall ever existed, forming a passage. The first floor has a smaller fireplace with brecchia ashlar jambs and a chamfered lintel with straight cut stops.

At the time of survey in 1985, there was no access to the roof space, but one visible principal rafter appeared to be straight and rested on a timber pad.

20th-century alterations have included the insertion of metal girders to carry the first-floor joists (which are probably also 20th-century) and the installation of numerous 20th-century windows.

The building stands gable-on to the road in the centre of Exminster village, slightly set back from it.