Summary
Former merchant's house. Built in 1603 for Thomas Trock. Extended in 1718 by William and Theophila Sellicke. Earlier origins as a C16 house.
Reasons for Designation
The Manor House Hotel, 2 Fore Street, Cullompton is listed at Grade II* for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* as an example of an early-C17 merchant’s house with evidence for an earlier, C16 core;
* for its regionally-distinctive design as a early-C17 town house with its characteristic use of stone party walls to an otherwise timber-framed building, as well as its employment of vernacular building materials;
* for the overall quality of craftsmanship exhibited in the timber-framing and decorative detailing of the principal façade;
* for the survival of a significant proportion of its C17 and C18 fixtures and fittings with features of note including moulded ceiling beams, fireplaces, panelling, and staircases;
* for the retention of its C17 roof structure which incorporates an unusually late example of the use of wind braces (a medieval carpentry tradition) in what is otherwise an early-C17 roof design.
Historic interest:
* for its contribution to our understanding of the development of domestic architecture for merchant’s houses in the early C17;
* for the continued legibility of its historic plan form as a three-room cross passage house, and its subsequent development in the C18.
Group value:
* for its strong group value with 4 Fore Street (Grade II), The Walronds at 6 Fore Street (Grade I), and 8 Fore Street (Grade II) which together form an impressive row of early C17 houses.
History
2 Fore Street was rebuilt following a fire in 1602 and forms part of a row of early C17 houses in Cullompton. It was built in 1603 for Thomas Trock, a wealthy clothier and merchant, and retains evidence of an earlier C16 house in its construction. The house underwent a major renovation in the early C18 by the then owners William and Theophila Sellicke.
The building became The Manor House Hotel in the mid-1930s. It was restored in the early C21.
Details
Former merchant's house. Built in 1603 for Thomas Trock. Extended in 1718 by William and Theophila Sellicke. Earlier origins as a C16 house.
MATERIALS: the ground floor of the principal elevation, the north wall, and the south wall are built of Culm sandstone laid as coursed rubble stone, with some regular, square, and finely jointed blocks. There are some Volcanic Trap stone and Beer stone dressings. The upper floors of the principal elevation and the rear elevation are of timber-frame; the east and north elevations have been rendered. The four gable-end roof structures are covered in slate tiles. The windows are oak-framed. There are lead, and later cast iron, guttering and rainwater goods.
PLAN: a three-room cross-passage plan, with the hall and the parlour to the left (south) and the service end to the right (north). A small rear wing to the rear of the service end has been absorbed into a larger early C18 rear addition.
EXTERIOR: the three-storey principal elevation is of four separately gabled bays, with coving marking the first floor, a jettied second floor, and a large shell hood to the main entrance. The upper floor windows are supported on coved sections and shaped brackets. The main entrance is in the position of the former cross passage, and comprises an early C18 arched doorway with Gothic fanlight and panelled reveals, with Tuscan columns and shaped brackets supporting the shell hood. The three ground-floor five-light casement windows, with twenty-one leaded panes per light, date from 1718. To the first floor are two six-light and one ten-light oriel windows - that to the right extending over the cross passage - all with ovolo moulded mullions and transoms (the larger with a central king-mullion). To the second floor, beneath each gable, is a five-light oriel window. Shaped brackets support the roof valleys. The stone end walls are corbelled at second floor level, in line with a carved timber string course, and each bears an inscription stone: 'TT' to the left, '1603, T T' to the right.
The side (north) elevation has a first-floor stack and retains lead guttering with vine leaf decoration.
The rear elevation is built from brick with burnt blue-grey headers. It has sash windows and a round-headed stair window. A rainwater head is dated 1718 with the initials S, W, and T set in a triangle formation. Two of the early C17 gable end walls survive exposed.
INTERIOR: the internal partitions are all timber framed with cob infill. The hall cross beam (now concealed) has double ovolo moulding and run-out stops, whilst the hall chamber fireplace (now concealed) has ovolo moulded sandstone jambs. The hall also retains early C18 bolection-moulded panelling, an ogee-moulded cornice, and two arch panels (copied on the renovated lower-end ceiling in the early 1980s). To the north end of the first-floor room is a C17 Beer stone fireplace. A C17 newel staircase to the rear survives at first and second-floor levels and one of the second-floor rooms retains a C17 square-headed, ovolo-moulded door surround. There is an C18 stair with flat handrail, square newel posts, twisted balusters and moulded closed string, accessed through an C18 round-headed arch. Elsewhere there are contemporary plaster cornices. The four gable-end roofs each have two trusses of principal rafters pegged at the apex and collars that are dovetailed and fixed by nails. The two rows of through-purlins support the pegged common rafters. To the front bays are wind braces of variable scantling and curvature that belong to a medieval carpentry tradition in an otherwise early C17 roof design.
