The Post Office

SX 6493 - 6593 SOUTH TAWTON SOUTH ZEAL

8/239 The Post Office

GV II

House and Post Office. Mid C16 with late C16 and C17 improvements, rearranged in C18 or C19, modernised with new rear block circa 1980. Plastered walls, probably granite stone rubble, maybe with cob; granite stacks topped with C20 brick; thatch roof. Plan and development: although the house has a 3-room-and-through-passage plan facing north-east onto the street it is not really clear whether this is its early form. Nevertheless it is described as if it were. Inner room at right end with end stack maybe inserted in the C19 or C20. The hall, now used as the Post Office, had a rear lateral stack but this was demolished in the C20. Small inner room at left end with end stack backing onto the adjoining house. C20 rear block extension and kitchen outshot. The house appears to have a conventional late medieval layout but some of the evidence is confusing. It apparently began as some form of open hall house but the roof over the inner room is the only section smoke-blackened from the open hearth fire. The demolished fireplace in the putative hall was probably late C16 or early C17 and this room was floored over in the mid C17. House now 2 storeys. Exterior: irregular 4-window front of C19 and C20 casements, only the oldest ones with glazing bars. There are 2 front doorways; the passage front doorway (to the house) is left of centre and the secondary doorway inserted into the hall/post office is right of centre and both now contain C20 doors. Roof is hipped to right and left runs into the roof of the adjoining house. Interior: is largely the result of C19 and C20 modernisations but the basic structure of the main block appears to be mostly C16 and C17. The upper passage screen (to the hall) is plastered but is said to contain the remains of an oak' plank-and-muntin screen. In the hall the mid C17 axial beam curiously is only moulded on one side. No carpentry detail shows in the inner room. Service end room has a granite ashlar fireplace and a soffit-chamfered axial beam, both probably C17. Roof of true cruck trusses (although one of the principals rests on a vertical post to the front). The roof bay over the inner room is sooted from an open hearth fire. The truss between this and the hall roof is closed and the rest of the roof is clean. South Zeal is special being one of the few medieval boroughs of Devon where a significant number of its C16 and C17 housees still survive.

Listing NGR: SX6517893514