Description

EXMINSTER CHURCH STILE, Exminster
SX 98 NW

4/40 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 2 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.
2 storeys and half-basement. Symmetrical 3-bay front with 2-storey bows with peaked
roofs on either side of a central bay with steps with curved iron railings up to a
central 2-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. 2 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. By 1878 (White's Devonshire) the building was in use as the Devon and Exeter
Boys Industrial School (founded 1863).

Listing NGR: SX9455587656

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• 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

• 
  Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy
• 
  Farrow & Ball How to Decorate: Transform your home with paint & paper
• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Hampshire: Winchester and the North (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)