The Vicarage

The Vicarage at Hennock is a vicarage of late medieval origin, substantially altered and probably enlarged in the late 16th or 17th century, and significantly remodeled around 1906 by the then vicar Robert Medley Fulford, a former architect. Further alterations have been made since.

The building is constructed of rendered cob and stone, with one wall of timber-framing. Early 20th-century additions are in red brick and wood. The roofs are thatched in wheat reed, hipped at the front, with late 19th and early 20th-century red brick chimney stacks. The plan is U-shaped, with the left arm extended forward and additional buildings inserted in the centre of the U circa 1906.

The range at the base of the U contains the earliest features and has a basically three-room and cross-passage plan with unusual characteristics. These include a long lower room to the left with a large chimney stack in the rear wall (possibly with an oven at the back), and a centre room (now the kitchen, probably the former hall) with an axial stack at the upper right-hand end. In both cases, the original fireplaces are plastered in. The layout appears to have been altered in the late 19th or early 20th century to provide a main entrance on the east side. The building rises two storeys.

Little of the pre-1906 main front, facing north, is now visible due to additions made at that date. The two arms of the U project on this side, with the left arm mostly obscured in the second storey by a glazed wood gallery of circa 1906 with an external staircase. The rear half of this gallery and staircase are well-preserved examples of their period, with the former retaining its original glass. The right arm and almost the entire base of the U are concealed by a two-storey block of circa 1906, but to its left is an earlier four-panelled door with two flush lower panels and a cast-iron knocker.

The inward-facing wall of the older part of the left arm displays 16th or 17th-century timber-framing—the only known rural example of this technique in Devon (apart from some entrance porches and minor details). The pegged, close-studded frame stands on a high stone plinth and is exposed beneath the gallery. It has early 20th-century brick nogging, but is clearly early in date, as a 16th or 17th-century flat-splay mullioned window has been cut into it at one end and largely removed before the nogging was inserted. In the second storey (now concealed by the gallery), a complete three-light wood window with flat-splay mullions survives, each light having a vertical wood glazing-bar diagonally set in its centre.

The inner face of the right wing has a 19th-century wood casement to the left of the ground storey, having two lights with six panes per light. Above it, in the second storey, is a three-light wood casement, perhaps somewhat earlier, with ten leaded panes per light. To the right of the ground storey is a plank door. The gable of the right wing has in the second storey a 19th-century wood casement of two lights with eight panes per light. The south and east fronts display an almost complete set of 19th-century wood-framed windows with small panes.

The interior presents significant medieval and early modern features. The kitchen (believed to be the former hall) contains late 16th or 17th-century upper floor-beams with ovolo moulding and raised run-out stops. The room to the right of the hall (the "inner room") has a chamfered beam with run-out stops. The former cross-passage, which now has a window at its rear end, features a stud-and-panel screen on the right, backing onto the kitchen. This screen has chamfered studs with diagonal cut stops and a chamfered door-frame with a shouldered head; the doorway has been blocked and a shouldered head door jamb from elsewhere inserted into the middle of it. At the rear of the passage, overlapping the kitchen, is a projection that formerly contained a newel stair and has a two-light window with chamfered wood mullions.

The right wing contains an axial stack with a fireplace in the south ground-storey room, the fireplace having hollow-moulded stone jambs. The roof of the main range has been heightened, but at least one late 16th or 17th-century truss survives over the cross-passage, featuring a notched apex and collar fixed to the principals with pegged mortice-and-tenon joints. Over the right wing is an apparently 19th-century roof with deal trusses designed in a late 16th or early 17th-century style, the collars with shaped ends halved and nailed to the principals.

The front courtyard on the north side of the house is an old cobbled area, divided into two by a high rendered wall. Along the street frontage is a gatehouse and a former barn, now in separate ownership as the village hall.

A glebe terrier of 1680 describes the house as containing a hall, parlour, kitchen, and seven chambers, with a boarded parlour floor but earth floors in the hall and kitchen. A terrier of 1665 refers to a bakehouse, stable, stall, and barn on the premises.