Description

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 16 April 2025 to amend details in the description and Sources and to reformat the text to current standards

SX 98 NW
4/40

EXMINSTER
Exminster
CHURCH STILE
Church Stile House

GV
II

House. Circa late C18. Rendered, probably stone construction; slate roof hipped at ends; end stacks with brick shafts.

The plan is of two adjoining separately-roofed blocks. The front block is single-depth with principal heated rooms, one on either side of a shallow entrance hall with a stair hall behind it. A half-basement contains service rooms. The adjoining rear block is narrow and under a lower roofline and contains a central service stair and further service rooms.

Two storeys and half-basement. Symmetrical three-bay front with two-storey bows with peaked roofs on either side of a central bay with steps with curved iron railings up to a central two-leaf front door under a large semi-circular fanlight with small panes and margin glazing. The windows to left and right in the bows are fine small-pane round headed tripartite sashes with margin glazing. The first floor windows in the bows are C20 replacement plastic pivot-hung sashes in original embrasures. Two brecchia platbands on the front elevation, the lower platband narrower.

Interior: Good circa late C18 interior detail. The open well stair has turned newels, stick balusters and a steeply ramped handrail. The principal room to the right has an Adam style plaster wall frieze and a round-headed recess on the rear wall; C20 chimneypiece. The service stair to the rear is coeval with turned newels and a ramped handrail, other joinery details also survive.

Church stile is an especially attractive example of a circa late C18 gentleman's house, sited to take advantage of a view across the Exe estuary to Topsham. The Exminster tithe map shows the extensive grounds (since decreased in size) with symmetrical blocks in front of the house to right and left, presumably for a coach house and stabling. Diocletian windows surviving in the ranges of houses which now flank the garden in front of the house indicate the positions of these former service blocks. Post 1869 the building was in use as the Devon and Exeter Boys Industrial School (founded 1863).

Listing NGR: SX9455587656

External Links

• Wikidata Q26458951

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

• 
  A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide
• 
  Cork: City and County (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The Victorian House Manual (2nd Edition): How They Were Built, Improvements & Refurbishment, Solutions to All Common Defects - Includes Relevant ... ... Properties (Haynes Manual) (Haynes Manuals)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990