The Hermitage And Attached Pier And Walls

This is a house with origins dating back to the mid-16th century, largely rebuilt in the 1840s. It is constructed of coursed limestone rubble with a pantile roof, stone coping, and moulded kneelers. Brick stacks are located to the right of the centre, at the left gable end, and at the rear right. The building comprises a three-unit lobby-entrance main block and a single-storey wing to the rear right.

The exterior features two storeys with an attic, and a four-window front. A C20 planked door, set above the road and to the right of the centre, has a flat stone porch supported by brackets and steps rising from the left. It is flanked by a three-light casement. The first floor has a two-light casement to the far left and three three-light casements to the centre and right. The three-light casements to the right have two panes to each light, while the others are leaded. The right return has a C17 stone mullioned window to each floor: a three-light window to the attic and four-light windows below, all with hoodmoulds.

The interior retains an inglenook fireplace with an oak lintel in the main room, alongside features largely dating to the 1840s. These include six-panel and four-panel doors, a Regency-style fireplace, and a cornice in the main bedroom.

Attached to the south-west corner of the house is an early to mid-19th century semicircular archway leading to the garden, characterized by beaded arrises and reeded imposts. A limestone rubble wall, approximately 40 meters long, continues southwards, with Ham Hill stone coping. A tall Ham Hill stone gate pier, topped with a pyramidal cap, stands at the corner where the wall turns to enclose the south side of the garden. A stretch of approximately 30 meters of this wall has large 19th-century buttresses on the outside. The wall continues along the east side for a further approximately 30 meters. C20 gates provide access to the archway, and two C20 garages are situated at the southerly end of the street wall.

Historical records indicate that a cottage called The Hermitage was documented on the site in 1540-1. The house was once the residence of George P R Pulman (d.1880), author of The Book of The Axe, a history of towns along the River Axe. Pulman was also involved in newspaper publishing, founding the first newspaper in Crewkerne in 1857.