Summary
An C18 coaching inn with probable earlier origins. Most notable for its surviving C19 layout and fittings, and the late C18/early C19 malt kiln and former malthouse to the rear. The C20 detached toilet block is not of special interest.
Reasons for Designation
The Bridge Inn, Topsham is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural Interest
* as an evolved C18 coaching inn it survives well as an early example of a building type that is well-constructed using the vernacular traditions of the area;
* the pub retains a remarkably complete C19 and C20 pub interior with fittings and advertising of note. The unusual layout includes a private parlour to the rear of the small servery;
* the late C18 or early brick kiln and former malthouse are notable survivals.
Historic Interest
* the evidence of a brewing operation on the site that directly supplied the commercial running of the inn is of interest at national level. The malt kiln is an essential part of a maltings and early kilns provide evidence of aspects of the brewing industry during the Industrial Revolution.
History
Bridge Inn stands as a prominent and distinctive landmark by Topsham Bridge (Grade II) and the River Clyst, and is mostly of C18 date in its current form although parts of the building are possibly of earlier origin. It served as a coaching inn from the time of the rebuilding of the bridge following its collapse in the C18, a period during which the shipbuilding port of Topsham flourished. The corner range closest to the road is of later C18 date and a malthouse and brewery were built to the rear in the late C18 or early C19.
The inn was advertised in the Exeter Flying Post in 1815 as the Topsham Bridge Inn under William Lake’s tenure and it subsequently passed through a number of hands until it was taken on by William John Gibbings in 1897. The inn has remained under the ownership and management of Mr Gibbings and his descendants since then and has been little altered. The Bridge Inn is shown on the Ordnance Survey (OS) Map of 1890, with later OS maps showing some rebuilding of the outbuildings behind the residential part of the building, and to the north of the pub.
The principal pub rooms and corridor retain C18 and C19 joinery including doors, dado panelling, seating and shutters. Brewing ceased at the establishment in the early C20 and the ground floor of the former malthouse to the rear became used as an additional pub area: it has brick fireplaces and a 1960s bar counter. The original first floor has been removed and the hop-drying floor is preserved above. The panelled hatch and counter between The Snug and parlour was added after the Second World War to make service to The Snug from the beer cellar easier. The parlour, known as the ‘Inner Sanctum’, makes Bridge Inn a rare example of a pub with a room where customers can sit behind the bar (once permission of the staff has been obtained). The late C18 or early C19 brick kiln between the pub and the former malthouse, which was used for the hop drying and malting operations, is a notable survival.
A visit to the inn by HM Queen Elizabeth in 1998 is thought to have been her first official visit to a public house. In 2022, the occasion remains celebrated in the decoration to parts of the public areas along with historical portraits associated with the family ownership of the pub since the 1890s.
Details
Public house and inn of early C18 date, possibly with earlier origins, with a lower, right-hand wing and rear brewery/ malt-house of late C18 or early C19 date.
MATERIALS: the earliest part of the building is of cob and stone, the right-hand wing is brick below and tile hung above under a hipped roof. The rear wing and kiln are a mixture of cob, stone and brick. Parts of the building are slate-hung. The walls are principally painted pink apart from some of the slate hanging. The roofs are slated except for the left-hand outshut which has pantiles and the rear wing with pantiles and sheeting. There are brick ridge stacks to the building and cast-iron rainwater goods. The interior joinery includes C18 and C19 ledged plank doors, panelling, shutters and fitted settles to the public areas.
PLAN: the pub is partly within a main two-storey, four-bay range that is a residential dwelling to the left and with the two public rooms and a corridor to the right. The second room, a parlour with servery hatch to The Snug, is within an outshut with steps down to a cellar in a brick outshut. To the right (south) corner of the main range, and set forward to the road edge, is a two-storey historic addition, square on plan, with a public room (Tap Room) to the ground floor. To the rear of the main range is a two-storey brewery/ malthouse range on a north/south orientation. It has a kiln room and a large public room with servery and hop-drying loft to the first floor.
EXTERIOR: the ground floor to the painted road front (Bridge Street) has three windows arranged around two doors. There are four windows to the first floor. The window openings to the left bay are casements, those to the centre and right are sashes without horns. The right hand three-panelled door to the pub has a reeded case. Attached to the left is an outshut with wide cart doors facing the road. There are two stacks to the roof, one to the ridge centre and one to the end gable, and a cast-iron hanging sign fixed to the slates over the central bay. To the right, the projecting Tap Room addition has a storey band, a slate hung first floor and an eaves cornice. The road elevation has a full-height central canted bay with horned sashes to both storeys. There is a large brick stack between the two ranges. On the return flank (south-east facing the bridge) there are offset three-light sashes to ground and first-floor windows and a small casement to the ground-floor right. To the rear are steps to the pub entrance beside the parlour outshut, which has a casement and a tall brick stack. There are two casements in the gable end wall behind it. To the right, the cellar outshut has a wide door below the slate-hung side of the brewery range with a horned sash at first-floor level. Further right the brewery range is angled on a north orientation and is of double height with two attic windows and former taking-in openings at first-floor level to the centre and right. At ground-floor level is a slim flat-roofed extension with an entrance into the public room. The majority of the brewery roof is of lower ridge height than the bays attached to the main range.
INTERIOR: the front and rear entrances both open into a panelled corridor with horizontal boarding that connects the Snug, Parlour and Tap Room. The small left-hand lounge (The Snug) has a high-level salt cupboard set in the back wall and two high-back curved settles, glazed above, defining one wall of the corridor. There is a stone inglenook with oak bressumer in the west wall. A door to the kiln room has a formal moulded case and has had the side panel of a settle fixed to the right architrave and the end of the moulded ceiling beam is set above its upper right corner. The panelled hatch to the parlour has a fitted counter with cask shelf below on the Parlour side, and three bottle openers are fixed to the wall, one for old marble stopper bottles. The Parlour has a corner cast-iron fireplace with shelving above and to its right is a window seat below a sash with early timber plank shutters. There is a curved settle to the right of the window against the corridor wall and there is a push bell by the parlour door in the corridor. The Tap Room at the front has fixed seating, panelled behind, and two tiers of cupboards to the left of a brick fireplace with chimneypiece. The fanlight qbove the door has white painted cement lettering advertising ‘KENNAWAYS ADORE SCOTLAND’S BEST WHISKY’.
There are stone steps down from the Parlour to the brick beer cellar with a wide door to the yard and a door in the opposite wall to the malthouse kiln. The brick kiln furnace provided hot air for malting operations. It is square on plan with a lime-washed shaft that extends out to form arches to the top of the kiln room walls. The furnace mouth faces north with six fire bars set back from the front and an iron plate to the top of the furnace front. There is a blocked mouth facing east and a ventilator to the south. The walls to the kiln room are stone (the rear of the main range) and brick. The wall to the cellar is timber framed with brick infill and has exposed stone footings to the north corner. Cobble stones are laid on the floor. A ledged plank door leads into the former brewery to the rear, now a large rectangular public room that is principally accessed from a door to the car park. The malting floor has been removed and there is a mid-C20 brick fireplace with a modern stove. One hop-shoot survives in the room. The lime-plastered rubble walls are of double thickness to around two metres in height with regularly spaced recesses below under timber lintels. One recess has been altered to a window with shutters. The ledges above support the struts and posts of the exposed timber structure to the hop-drying floor above, with some later brick reinforcement. Timber shuttered openings are spaced across the walls at upper level except to the south wall where there is a timber gallery constructed of hand sawn timbers above a 1960s servery. The roof is constructed of pegged king-post trusses with slender struts.
