Post Office

This is a house, originally serving as a post office, dating to the early 16th century, with alterations made in the late 16th or early 17th century. It is constructed of plastered stone rubble with a gable-ended thatched roof and a small brick stack at the left-hand gable end. Originally the house likely comprised three rooms and a through-passage, though the passage and lower room have since been removed. The original layout probably included an open hall, possibly with an open hearth, although direct evidence of this is unconfirmed. The chamber above the inner room is jettied into the hall, and the arrangement and closed truss in the partition above suggest this was an original feature. A hall stack either existed originally or was inserted in the late 16th or early 17th century, coinciding with the installation of a ceiling. The front of the house shows an asymmetrical two-window arrangement with early 20th-century 3-light casement windows. A 20th-century part-glazed door is located at the left end, with a wooden lean-to porch to the right. Inside the hall, a plank and muntin screen with chamfered muntins is present at the upper end. Above it, the ceiling projects slightly into the room at a lower level than the rest of the room, with a plastered-over beam along the edge, indicating a possible internal jetty. The ceiling also features an axial beam with richly moulded converging stops. A granite-framed fireplace with a hollow-chamfered lintel resting on shaped granite corbels is at the lower end of the hall. The inner room has an ovolo- and fillet-moulded cross beam with deeply inscribed scrolls to the ogee stops. There is a newel stair by the fireplace, beneath a chamfered wooden lintel. The roof above the hall retains the rear blade of a cruck truss (the front blade removed by the chimney), with threaded purlins. A closed truss is located above the jetty, and there is another open truss over the inner room. Lack of roof access prevents confirmation of smoke-blackening on the timbers. Despite its modest size, the house contains interesting and high-quality features.