26-29, Chapel Street

A row of four cottages with a surviving tenter loft, dating from the late 17th or early 18th century, is located in Chapel Street, Buckfastleigh. The cottages are constructed from painted local grey limestone rubble, with weatherboarding on the upper storey loft, the right end of which is rendered, and a brick section on the left end. They have a slate roof, half-hipped at the ends, and stacks with rendered and stone rubble shafts. The plan is of single-depth cottages with two rear lateral stacks, and single-storey rear outshuts associated with the rear yard walls.

The tenter loft, a very unusual survival in Devon, was used for drying cloth slowly, stretched on tenterhooks, with adjustable louvres. The asymmetrical front elevation has four first-floor and eight ground-floor windows. The three right-hand cottages (Nos. 26-28) are double-fronted. Each has a central, ovolo-moulded doorframe. Nos. 26 and 27 have half-glazed 20th-century timber front doors, while the front door to No. 28 is partly covered but may be a two-panel early 18th-century door; a bootscraper is present at No. 28. Ground-floor windows are late 19th or early 20th-century four-pane timber sash windows. Single centre first-floor windows to each cottage are 3-light casements, with two panes per light, and timber lintels. No. 29 has similar details, but the doorway, to the left, is slightly wider and features a door of 3 over 3 vertical panels. There are two ground-floor windows alongside to the right, and a similar first-floor window. The tenter loft is divided into bays by vertical planks with intermediate, narrow bead-moulded studs. A double loft doorway is located at the right end of the front. The eaves feature an angled fascia board, and cast-iron rainwater goods are present.

Inside No. 26, the interior has been modernised. The tenter loft has a tie beam truss with a king post tenoned in and diagonal struts projecting from the king post. A modern plaster ceiling obscures the upper part of the roof. Several tenterhooks, resembling small cup hooks, remain. The wall framing has main studs pegged in and slender diagonal braces. Historically, tenter lofts are known to survive in Exeter and Ashburton. This example is a rare combination of building types, representing the pre-factory phase of the wool industry, and is nationally significant as evidence of this historical industry in Devon.