Nos 25 And 26 Including Rear Stable Block To 25 And Niche With Tap To 26

This is a house, originally a single dwelling divided into two separate properties, with a rear stable block attached to number 25 and a niche with a tap to number 26. The building dates to circa 1790-1810, and may incorporate an earlier structure, undergoing substantial alterations in the late 20th century. The main house is constructed of stone rubble, with a stucco finish and a slate roof with gabled ends, featuring stacks with rendered shafts. The rear stable block is built of local grey limestone rubble with a corrugated asbestos roof.

The original plan consisted of two rooms wide and two rooms deep, with a passage running through to a rear courtyard known as Fowlers Court. This passage has since been blocked off. Number 25 is heated from a stack at the left end, with a large rear stack incorporating a bread oven shared with the adjacent Post Office. A cartway entrance leads to the yard to the right of number 26, and includes at least one blocked doorway providing access from the cartway into number 26. The stable block runs along the left side of the yard, forming part of a larger complex of domestic and industrial buildings.

The front of the house is asymmetrical but regular, featuring a three-window arrangement and central front doors. It has an eaves board and a moulded timber cornice with a fascia featuring scalloped decoration above deep, ground-floor bow windows that extend to the left and right. Matching six-panel front doors (20th-century replicas) are set within doorcases with pilasters and overlights; the door to number 25 is slightly wider. Attractive, late 18th or early 19th-century sixteen-pane bow windows are present on the ground floor, accompanied by external shutters. The two outer first-floor windows are late 18th or early 19th-century sixteen-pane sash windows, with a similar twelve-pane sash in the centre. A 20th-century attic dormer with a casement window is visible on number 25, although both properties were formerly said to have had dormers with diamond-leaded panes. A round-headed niche containing a tap on the right return of number 26 is a remnant of Buckfastleigh’s early piped water system dating from 1892, installed following a typhoid outbreak.

The rear yard retains some pitched stone paving, bounded by a short section of masonry wall and a long storage shed with a monopitch roof, featuring four doorways, two with plank doors, and two windows. The interior of number 25 has been modernized, but features some original four-panel doors, although the staircase has been replaced. The property is notable for its attractive frontage and the preservation of its rear courtyard, which contributes to the urban character of Buckfastleigh. Historical photographs show a rear porch leading to the cross passage.