Description

SS 72 SE BISHOP'S NYMPTON

6/40 Hills View

20.2.67

GV II

House, a public house called the Mason's Arms until circa the 1940s. It is not clear
whether it was built as an inn or converted from a house. Probably late C17.
Whitewashed rendered cob and stone rubble; wooden shingle roof, gabled at ends
(thatched until at least 1960, old list description); back to back fireplaces in an
axial stack to right of centre, left end stack has been used to heat left end room
but is said to be part of Rock Cottage (q.v.), adjoining at the left.
Plan: Overall L plan. Single depth main range, 3 rooms wide, with a lobby entrance
to right of centre against the axial stack. Before the building closed as a public
house the right hand room was used as the ladies' parlour, the centre room as the
main bar (information from owner). An axial passage runs parallel to the rear wall
of the bar with a small serving room with serving hatch in an outshut behind the
passage, which also gives access to a 1 room plan unheated rear right wing which may
have been the cellar. There is a doorway from this room into the ladies' parlour. A
steep stair rises from the axial passage. The wing has been extended by a second
room heated by a small C18 or C19 fireplace.
Exterior: Facing the main road through the village but set back from it with a small
yard and garden in front. 2 storeys. Asymmetrical 4 window front with a C20 front
door to right of centre and small-pane C19 2-light casement except for a fixed 9-pane
window above the front door.
Interior: The right hand room has a late C17 or C18 fireplace, the jambs curving in
towards the fireback. The centre room has a large fireplace with a plain timber
lintel and plain exposed ceiling beams. The bar bench survives, fixed to the rear
wall, close to the fire below an C18 cupboard door which has been reduced in size.
The left hand room has a plastered-over axial beam. C18 cupboard door on the stairs.
The fireplace in the end room of the wing has an unhewn timber lintel. The serving
hatch from the serving room survives.
White's Devon gives names of the proprietors as James Bond in 1850, and John Stanbury
in 1879.
Group value with a cluster of early houses at the south end of the village.

Listing NGR: SS7584423680

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26456408

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

• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
• 
  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects, Supplement 2014
• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)