Description

WINKLEIGH QUEEN STREET (north side),
SS 6308
Winkleigh
11/183 Church House and Almshouses
GV II
Pair of houses formerly church house and reputedly almshouses. According to sources
the church house was built in 1535 at the cost of £28 - 14s - 4d. Restored in late
C20. Partly rendered cob and rubble walls. Thatch roof gabled to left end, half-
hipped to right. 3 brick stacks: one at left gable-end and 2 axial - the right-
hand one larger constructed of older bricks.
Plan: the plan has been considerably altered during the late C20 restoration but
can be partially deduced from G. W. Copeland's description in "Devonshire Church
Houses" written in the mid C20 before the restoration. The building is in fact in 2
distinct parts with the church house section to the left and it is unclear whether
the 2 parts are coeval or what was the purpose of the right-hand part which is
reputed to have been an almshouse. In the typical form the church house, according
to Copeland, consisted of the standard large room on the 1st floor, although more
unusually heated by 2 gable-end fireplaces. This room was entered by a doorway on
the north, churchyard side. On the ground floor were 2 larger heated rooms, the
left-hand one with an oven so presumably the kitchen, and between them was a small
store room. This plan also complies with other church houses. The right-hand
cottage appears to be of 2-room plan, each heated by a central axial stack with
lobby entry in front of it.
Exterior: 2 storeys. Asymmetrical 4:2 window front all of late C20 diamond leaded-
pane 3-light casements. Church house to left has roughly central C20 plank door
under thatch doorhood supported on wooden poles. Almshouse has central C20 plank
door, directly in front of axial stack. Rear elevation facing onto a churchyard is
virtually blank apart from doorway at right-hand end approached by old granite
steps.
Interior: Church House only accessible at time of survey. Right-hand room on
ground floor has fireplace with chamfered and jewel-stopped wooden lintel.
Chamfered unstopped ceiling beams throughout ground floor rooms. Smaller fireplace
at right-hand end on 1st floor has cambered wooden lintel, chamfered with similar
stops. The fireplaces at the left-hand end survive in more altered forms and may in
fact be later insertions. The roof structure has been completely renewed in Church
House but imitating an early C17 construction form which apparently it replaces. It
is unclear whether the roof in Almshouse was also replaced - if not the C17
structure may survive, and other early features could also exist.
Source: G. W. Copeland - "Devonshire Church Houses Part IV "T.D.A."

Listing NGR: SS6329508040

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26398526

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Sheffield and the South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Norfolk 1: Norwich and North-East: Norwich and North-east v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990: Updated version