Church Rooms

SX 79 SW DREWSTEIGNTON DREWSTEIGNTON

5/108 Church Rooms 22.2.67

GV II*

Parish hall, former school and originally a church house. Early or mid C16, refurbished circa 1980. Coursed blocks of masssive granite ashlar with a chamfered plinth; granite ashlar stack and chimney shaft; slate roof (formerly thatch). Plan: the building faces south and is built across and terraced into the hillslope. There are 2 ground floor rooms; a small unheated room at the right (east) end and a left room heated by a large projecting end stack. There is a stone newel stair to rear of the fireplace. Single first floor room is unheated and because of the slope can be entered directly from the there and the right end. It appears to be a single phase building, always 2 storeys. Exterior: irregular 3-window front of circa 1980 timber-mullioned casements containing rectangular panes of leaded glass. The 2 doorways, one to each ground floor room, contain part-glazed studded plank doors. All the apertures have slate hoods. Another similar door to the right end at first floor level and similar rear fenestration. The circa 1980 joinery was designed to complement the ancient character of the building. The roof is gable-ended. Good interior: is well preserved. The ground floor rooms are separated by an oak plank-and-muntin screen. The headbeam has a moulded cornice and the muntins are chamfered with step stops. It contains a shoulder-headed doorframe. The tops of the planks have been knocked out to create a row of internal windows. The 3-bay ceiling of the main room is carried on 2 massive soffit-chamfered and step-stopped crossbeams and the plain joists are exposed. The fireplace is massive and built of granite ashlar with a plain chamfered surround. At the head of the stairs is an oak round-headed doorframe. The first floor room is open to the 3-bay roof which is carried by side-pegged jointed cruck trusses with cambered collars. Roofspace was not available for inspection at the time of this survey. This is an interesting and well-preserved former church house intruding into the churchyard.

Listing NGR: SX7363290819