Description

GERMANSWEEK GERMANSWEEK
SX 49 SW

6/86 Paul's Shop
31.7.85

GV II

Derelict house, may originally have been the Church house. Circa late C15/early C16
with alterations in C17, C18 and C19. Local stone rubble walls up to 1st floor
continued in plastered job. Corrugated iron roof gabled at right end, hipped at
both left end with catslide over rear outshut. 2 rubble stacks with brick shafts -
one is axial, the other is at the right gable end and is semi-circular on plan
which is very unusual in Devon.

Either 2 or 3 room-and-through-passage plan with lower end to the right. The inner
room may be an addition as a thick wall of apparently full-height divides it from
the hall and its roof is not visible. Originally open to the roof timbers at least
over the hall and possibly also the lower room. From the evidence of a double door-
head between the passage and lower end it is possible that there is originally have
been divided longitudinally into 2 service rooms at that end. In the C17 an axial
stack was inserted into the hall backing onto the passage and the house was floored-
in at this stage. The lower end stack was probably added in the C18. If not
original the inner room may also have been added at this time, it remained
unheated. Rear outshut added probably in C18, behind lower end and hall.

2 storeys. Asymmetrical 3 window front, windows in poor condition. Left-hand and
central 1st floor windows are C19 2-light casements; the two right-hand windows are
C19 16 pane sashes of which the ground floor one is hornless and probably earlier.
To right of centre is C19 plank door. At left-hand end is doorway into inner room:
The rear elevation has an C18 wooden frame to the inner room which formerly had a
square section mullion and stanchion bars. Outshut to its left extending to end
of home.

Interior: Jointed cruck truss over hall (not fully accessible to view) and truss
over lower end, both smoke-blackened. Feet of lower end truss not inspected but
it has a moticed collar and a triangular strengthening block in the apex. Purlins
also smoke-blackened and appear to be threaded. Roof over higher end not
accessible. Passage has round headed wooden door frame beside stack leading into
hall. At lower side of passage is similar double door-head with central jamb
missing. Adjoining it at the front of the passage is a block of solid wall rising
to the roof apex. Hall has unstopped chamfers to longitudinal ceiling beam and
fireplace with lightly chamfered wooden lintel, stone rubble jambs and oven which
projects into passage. C19 framed stairs in hall to rear of stack. Lower room
has similar longitudinal beam to hall and C19 wooden chimney piece with C18 2-panel
door to passage. Lower end wall of outshut has a blocked 2-light chamfered wooden
mullion window, probably reset but if not suggesting that this is a Cl7 outshut.
Despite its condition this house incorporates a number of good late medieval
features and as a possible church house it has considerable historic interest. It
occupies a prominent central position in this unspoilt village.

Listing NGR: SX4390494228

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26603509

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

• 
  [(Shropshire)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1958)
• 
  London 6: Westminster (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England): Westminster v. 6
• 
  Gloucestershire 1: The Cotswolds: Cotswolds Pt. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cornwall (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Period Property Manual (New Ed)
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey