A late medieval house near the centre of Paignton, its stonework well preserved, probably built for a well-off local family
Open to visitorsan English Heritage site — check opening times and admission before you go
Exactly when this stone house went up in Paignton, or who built it, isn’t recorded, but whoever commissioned it clearly had money. The carved woodwork looks 14th century; the room layout, three rooms built for privacy and separate daily uses, looks more like the 15th. The hall alone had space for around twenty people to share a meal, and though the house has sometimes been nicknamed the Priest’s House, it more likely started out as the home of a merchant or landowning family than a member of the clergy.
The house stands today in a back street near Paignton’s town centre, a solid stone survivor from a much older town. Inside, a 16th-century oak doorway leads into the screens passage, a short corridor that once separated the grand rooms of a house from its kitchen end. The hall opens off one side, the parlour off the other, each warmed by its own hooded fireplace. The elaborately finished parlour was probably used for business and quiet relaxation. A stair from the parlour climbs to two small upper chambers; a third, reached instead via a 16th-century gallery, sits at the opposite end of the house.
The house is cared for jointly with the Paignton Heritage Society, and what’s on show inside is mostly modern furniture, put there to illustrate medieval carpentry and how the rooms were originally used. It’s free to visit but open only on set days through the year. Paignton Sands is a few minutes’ walk away, and Torre Abbey, a ruined medieval abbey turned museum, is a short drive north-east.
