The Kings Arms

SX 6493 - 6593 SOUTH TAWTON SOUTH ZEAL

8/242 The Kings Arms 22.2.67

GV II

Public house, former house. Late C16 with C17 improvements, modernised circa 1970. Plastered granite stone rubble with some cob; stone rubble and cob stacks with granite ashlar chimneyshafts; thatch roof. Plan and development: 4-room-and-through-passage plan house built along the street, down the hillslope and facing south-west. The room uphill at the left end narrower than the main block and it is an C18 extension. The former left end room was the inner room and it once had an end stack backing onto the extension. The hall has a large axial stack backing onto the passage. Service end room has a gable-end stack. 2-storey porch in front of passage. The late C16 house probably had an open hall but was built with a stack and both inner and service end rooms were probably floored from the beginning. The hall was floored in the C17. The porch may be original, if not it was added in the early C17. Circa 1970 the bar was enlarged by knocking all 3 rooms above the passage together. In doing this the inner room fireplace was removed. C20 kitchen outshot to rear of hall. 2 storeys. Exterior: 3:1 window front of C20 casements with glazing bars. The ground floor one right of the porch (service end room) occupies the moulded granite frame of a late C16 or C17 window missing its 2 mullions. It has a hoodmould with rosettes carved on the labels. 2-storey porch right of centre has a half-hipped roof. Plain outer doorway and C20 door to passage. No front window to room over; instead C20 casements with glazing bars either side. Granite mounting block on right side of porch. Secondary door to cellar at left end. Roof is gable-ended to right and hipped to left. All the ground floor rooms have plain soffit-chamfered axial or crossbeams, the one in the service end room massive and with one end forking. Hall and service end fireplaces are blocked by C20 grates. Good C18 cupboard with panelled doors and H-hinges in the service end room. Roof over hall and inner room carried on 2 true cruck trusses of massive scantling. Both are clean. Service end roof not accessible. C18 extension has original A-frame trusses. South Zeal is special being one of the few medieval boroughs where a large number of buildings survive from the C16 and C17.

Listing NGR: SX6496093674