| Summary: | Detached kitchen or possibly Church House. Probably late C15/early C16. Substantial C20 alterations. Dressed coursed Heavitree brecchia; thatched roof gabled at ends; right end projecting stack, slightly projecting corbelled first floor stack on rear wall, shaft dismantled. The original function of the building is unclear. The ground floor is divided by a stone wall between 1 large heated room to the right and a narrow unheated room to the left. Opposed front and rear doorways give direct access into the heated room immediately to the right of the internal stone wall. The first floor consists of a single room heated by the stack on the rear wall, access to the first floor is from the exterior via a straight stair adjacent to the left end wall. In 1679, according to Barley, it was described as "an old house built with stone and covered with reed, two parts (ie rooms) in the bottoms, one in the top, one oven to bake standing in the chimney and place to brew". The building may have been a detached kitchen to a house that no longer exists, or possibly a church ale and bake house with some kind of public room on the first floor. A single storey lean-to adjoining at the left end is in brick, but the front wall, adjacent to the front wall of the main block is Heavitree brecchia and the building may have extended further to the left. A short section of brecchia walling at right angles to the front of the building could also have been part of the early arrangement. C20 alterations have included the insertion of metal girders to carry the first floor joists, which are probably C20, and the insertion of a number of C20 windows.2 storeys, asymmetrical 2 windows front. At the extreme left steps rise to a Tudor arched rebated doorway leading to the stair. A 2-centred chamfered arched doorway to right of centre has brecchia voussoirs, to the right of the doorway a window with voussoirs, a cranked head and C20 glazing; to the left of the doorway a probably inserted rectangular window with C20 glazing. Above this window, a 1-light chamfered window with C20 glazing. There appears to be a second similar window on the first floor to the right, although this is partly obscured by foliage. The rear elevation has a blocked chamfered 2 centred doorway and a first floor slightly projecting corbelled stack to the right (shaft no longer exists). 2 first floor and 2 ground floor windows appear to be C20 insertions. Interior: the ground floor has a massive fireplace with a segmental brecchia arch. To the left of the fireplace a rounded recess may have been an oven. A 2-centred chamfered stopped stone doorway in the internal wall leads into the unheated room to the left. The C20 ceiling replacement makes it difficult to judge whether there was ever a second cross wall forming a passage. The first floor has a smaller fireplace with brecchia ashlar jambs and a chamfered lintel with straight cut stops. No access to roofspace at time of survey (1985) but 1 visible principal rafter appears to be straight and rests on a timber pad. An intriguing early building which has survived in the centre of Exminster village. It is gable on to, and slightly set back from the road. |
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