Description

SX 79 SE CHERITON BISHOP CHERITON BISHOP

10/31 Old Rectory including forecourt 26.8.65 walls

II*

Rectory, now house. Probably late C14-early C15; improved in C16 and late C17th-early C18; modernised and extended circa 1820. Plastered cob on rubble footings with plastered brick and cob extension; wheat reed thatched roof. Now a double-depth plan, 2 storeys throughout. Faces north-west. The older front block has a 3-room ground plan comprising heated rooms either side of central entrance hall. with stairs off to left to rear: it is probably adapted from a 3-room-and- through-passage plan with inner room to south-west (right of front). Single room kitchen block added behind hall and inner room circa 1820. Main block has gable- end stacks and rear block has gable-end brick stack to south-west. Unbalanced 4- window fronte. Front door slightly left of centre behind late C19-early C20 porch with slated, gabled roof. Windows are mostly C20: 2-light casement with upper transom immediately right of porch and similar 3-light window at right end, a C19 tripartite sash 6 panes above 6 panes to service room at left end, and 4 first floor windows - all 3-light casements with eaves rising to gables over. The house has a complex multi-phase structural history. Roof of front block is the original and virtually complete although some of cruck feet are cut away to rear. There are 2 wide bays to the south west and 2 narrow bays to north east (left of front). 2 of the 3 main trusses are true crucks, the central is a face-pegged jointed cruck with the principal in 2 parts jointed above collar level with a stop- splayed scarf and 4 face pegs. All 3 of large scantling with cambered collars and unchamfered arch braces below. At the apex the principals are fixed into a saddle- piece carrying a square-set ridge purlin (Alcock Type C). From the top of each collar a central post rises to saddle-piece and longitudinal curving braces spring from its base to support the ridge. The 2 wide bays have intermediate trusses of lighter scantling. The principals are thought to rest on a buried wall plate; the collars are flat with straight raking braces below; and principals meet over the top of the ridge with a small lap-jointed yoke immediately below (a variant of Alcock Type L2). There are single sets of unchamfered windbraces and evidence of an original half-hip arrangement at south-west end. Most of the contemporary common rafters survive and there is evidence for a smoke louvre near the centre of the roof. This unusual devolved crown-post construction is probably the product of a late C14-Early C15 local carpentry school (cf. Clifford Burton, Drewsteignton and The Old Rectory, Lustleigh). The roof is heavily smoke-blackened from end to end proving that the medieval house was heated by an open hearth fire and divided by low partition screens. Any remaining contemporary features below are hidden by later work. A late C16-early C17 granite fireplace with hollow-chamfered surround is exposed in south western room (narrowed slightly on left side). This room and entrance hall have C17 chamfered and stopped cross beams. The late C17-early C18 dogleg stair has a closed string on first flight but an open string with shaped brackets above, square-sectioned newels, moulded flat handrail and turned balusters. Some late C17-early C18 2-panel doors survive on both floors and contemporary panelled wainscotting lines north east room. Early wide oak floorboards to first floor. Entrance hall floored with chequer pattern made up of small square blocks of elm and dark oak (probably laid circa 1820). From each end of front high cob walls with pantile tops enclose front garden. This is an important medieval house.

Listing NGR: SX7741293438

External Links

• Wikidata Q17548319

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