Description

EAST BUDLEIGH HAYES LANE, East Budleigh
SY 0684
8/75 Vicarsmead including boundary
-
11.11.52 walls adjoining to east and west
GV II*
House, a vicarage until 1852. Early C16 with later C16 and C17 improvements,
modernised and reduced in size circa 1690, southern end altered and wing built (or
rebuilt) there to provide a parish room in early C19, and modernised again circa
1930. Mostly plastered cob on stone rubble footings; stone rubble stacks topped
with plastered brick, the hall stack apparently rebuilt with circa 1930 brick;
thatch roof.
A much altered 3-room-and-through-passage plan house originally facing west but now
facing east and with the service end room at the right (northern) end. The inner
room (if one existed) was demolished in the early C19 when south wing built at right
angles projecting forward. Service end room has end stack and hall has rear lateral
stack. C19 and C20 rear outshots. Rear end of passage has 2-storey (originally
front) porch but the doorway is now blocked converting the lower part to a small
room. 2 storeys.
Irregular 4-window front to the main block. They are flat-faced mullion windows
with casements and the oldest are of oak and date from circa 1690. They contain
rectangular panes of leaded glass, some of them very old. The hall window left of
the passage doorway includes the signatures of C18 and C19 vicars scratched onto the
glass and the casement here has a shaped wrought iron catch. The passage doorway
has an early C19 6-panel door with panelled reveals and a C20 porch with semi-
conical thatch roof resting on rustic timber posts. The inner side of the left-hand
south wing has 2 ground floor 2-light casements (one each side of a blocked doorway)
and there is another on the end, this one below an early C19 Venetian window with
glazing bars. The main block is gable-ended and the wing has a half-hipped roof.
The rear outshots have been built out further than the former porch which has a
gabled roof. That to left has a thatch roof continued down from the main roof. All
the windows here are C20 casements with glazing bars.
Good interior showing the work of all the main building phases. The oldest feature
is the remains of a face-pegged jointed cruck roof truss over the service end room.
The upper part has been removed and with it has gone any evidence of smoke-
blackening from an open hearth fire. The rest of the main roof, over the passage
and hall is early or mid C16. It is 3 bays with side-pegged jointed cruck trusses
with moulded archbraces. On the rear side one set of double windbraces have
survived and the purlin below has ancient colour, a mid or late C16 painted scrolls
and part of a Latin quotation on a black ground. The paintwork suggests that the
hall had a fireplace by this time but the stack has been rebuilt and there is a C20
grate on the ground floor. It is not known whether the original fireplace remains.
No beams show in the hall and therefore the date of the flooring is not known. A
mid C16 oak window frame has been reset at the upper end of the hall, 2 lights with
crank-headed lights. The service end room has probably C17 soffit-chamfered
crossbeams. The plain sides of the sandstone fireplace have knife-sharpening
depressions and it contains an oven which has been relined with C19 brick. The
lintel is a replacement but using a C17 moulded beam. The stairs and much of the
joinery detail is C19. In the parish room wing the carpentry detail is C19 and C20.
There is a hidden space in the thickness of the first floor wall. Since the early
C19 incumbent, the Reverend Ambrose Stapleton, built this wing and is known to have
organised smuggling in this area; this might have been built in order to hide
contraband.
The service end has its gable end onto Hayes Lane and from each side high walls of
plastered cob on stone rubbe footings extend both east and west as boundary walls.
The western wall has tile coping and the eastern wall, which contains C20 double
gates, has thatch coping.
Vicarsmead is an exceptionally picturesque house, and the result of several builds.
It contains some high quality features, notably the hall roof. It was formerly
known as Brooklands and the Old Vicarage. The earliest documentary reference is
from 1513. A terrier of 1679-80 describes 5 ground floor rooms; hall, parlour
kitchen and 2 butteries or milk houses. In 1690 Mr. Duke, the patron, the vicar and
churchwardens appealed to the bishop for a restoration of the building which was
described in a ruinous state and this was granted.
Source T.N. Brushford. The Church of All Saints, East Budleigh, Part 3. Trans.
Devon. Association Vol.26 (1894), pp 266-269.

Listing NGR: SY0644884821

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17547251

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

• 
  Period property manual, victorian house manual 2 books collection set by ian rock
• 
  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Churches: An Architectural Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Building Small Projects (New Best of Fine Woodworking)