The Kings Arms

The Kings Arms is a public house, originally a house, dating to the late 16th century with alterations in the 17th century, and modernisation around 1970. The building is constructed of plastered granite stone rubble, with some cob, and has granite ashlar chimney shafts and a thatched roof.

The original house was a 4-room-and-through-passage plan, built along the street and facing south-west, following the natural slope of the land. A narrower, 18th-century extension was added uphill to the left. An earlier room served as an inner room, originally backed by an end stack which now adjoins the extension. The hall features a large axial stack backing onto the passage, while the service end room has a gable-end stack. A two-story porch stands in front of the passage. The late 16th-century house likely began with an open hall, but was originally floored in the inner and service end rooms; the hall was subsequently floored in the 17th century. The porch may be original, or was added in the early 17th century. Around 1970, the bar was enlarged by combining the three rooms above the passage, resulting in the removal of the fireplace in the inner room. A 20th-century kitchen now projects to the rear of the hall.

The front of the building has a 3:1 window arrangement of 20th-century casements with glazing bars. The ground floor window to the right of the porch, in the service end room, is set within a moulded granite frame that originally held a late 16th- or 17th-century window with two mullions. This frame retains a hood mould with rosettes carved on the labels. The two-story porch has a half-hipped roof, a plain outer doorway, and a 20th-century door to the passage. There is no window on the front of the room above; instead, there are 20th-century casements with glazing bars on either side. A granite mounting block is located to the right of the porch; a secondary door provides access to the cellar at the left end. The roof is gable-ended to the right and hipped to the left.

Internally, the ground floor rooms have plain soffit-chamfered axial or crossbeams, the beam in the service end room being particularly massive and forked at one end. Hall and service end fireplaces are now blocked by 20th-century grates. A good 18th-century cupboard with panelled doors and H-hinges is located in the service end room. The hall and inner room are roofed by two well-preserved cruck trusses of substantial size. The service end roof is inaccessible. The 18th-century extension has original A-frame trusses. The building is situated in South Zeal, one of the few medieval boroughs with a substantial number of surviving 16th- and 17th-century buildings.