The Abbotts Antique Shop

The Abbotts antique shop occupies approximately half the ground floor of a dwelling house built circsa mid, or possibly early, 16th century. The original two storey property, which faces east onto the Market Place, would probably have been built by a merchant of some wealth. At the front now is a long central hallway between two fairly imposing rooms for that period. It is likely that the shop occupies the original front parlour which may have had a divider between it and its counter-part, the house now know as the Law Chambers. However the heavy moulded timber ceiling beams continue through the whole of the ground floor without a break, creating deep 6ft x 6ft square panels. Those in the Law Chambers are adorned with 16th century strongly moulded, geometric, decorative plasterwork. This decorative moulding has been remove in the shop as a later period. The principal reason for believing that there may have been two room is the evidence of two fireplaces. The main divider wall, on one side of the present hallway between the shop and the law chambers is of every fine oak panelling which appears to be of early 17th century period.

The fire place in the shop is quite substantial, made entirely of local stone. It has a simple shallow edge moulding and a bridging beam above consistent with the period of the original build. Unfortunately the fireplace has been crudely mutilated at much late periods. The right hand part has been pierced through to create a passage to a rear room. A near matching mould has been carved on this for effect but even this is not complete as there may have been a further internal wall meeting the face of this work roughly at the centre of the original fireplace. The left had part of the fireplace has been hacked out to make way for the installation of the first Colyton telephone exchange. (The shop was once the local post office)  There is now a bulky modern brick pillar now supporting the fractured fireplace lintel. There is reasonable evidence to make one believe that there had been a circular staircase rising just to the right and behind the original fireplace. However there was a major modernisation carried out in the early 19th century which has obscured many of the shop's original features. 

Upstairs the party wall between the shop and Haynes Hardware is original half timber construction which could go back to the early 16th century.  However in the rooms upstairs there are remnants of  peg jointed cruck trusses with king post and tie. These do not appear  continue into the downstairs structure and do not match any of the internal walls. These may have been inserted in the 17th/18th century to raise the upper ceiling heights. These have bee cut off in the roof area when a roof replacement was undertaken earlier this century.

The front elevation appears to have been replaced in the 19th century remodelling. The single window in the antiques shop was replaced with Victorian full width shop front. Most internal doors are attractive and well preserved  17th century examples. There is one remaining horizontal sliding sash window in the upper elevation.

John Forrester-Addie states "I consider this proeprty displays the hallmarks of a building that demostrates Colyton in its heyday of economic wealth and activity."