Local List: 20th Century coastguard station on Hurlstone Point

The remains of a coastguard station on Hurlstone Point, built in around 1900 by Huish and Cooksley, a building firm in Porlock and manned until after World War II. It was a two-storey building, but now has no upper floor or roof. It is built of blocks of local stone. The main entrance has a dressed stone porch. There are brick fireplaces in both the upper and lower rooms. The windows were likely to be sashes and a projecting bay window on the first floor north elevation enhanced vision along the coastline. The building was not recommended for listing in an assessment by Historic England in October 2019. It was described as: a well-built, functional structure whose architectural integrity has been significantly diminished by the loss of historic fabric including the windows, doors and roof, and internally its first floor, although it makes a strong contribution to the local landscape, in the context of history and development of coastguard lookouts it is a particularly late example. It has strong local interest as a prominently-sited and distinctive early-C20 structure within Exmoor National Park. It has been assessed as ‘moderate’ in all criteria: it is of some age but not an early example, is the only such example along the Exmoor coast, it is of distinctive but not exceptional design, it is connected with a local firm of builders, valued as a local landmark on the Coast Path, there are nearby sites recorded associated with signaling and communications e.g. ROC posts and it is one of a chain of such sites around the coast nationally. The heritage asset was assessed for inclusion on the Exmoor Local Heritage List in November 2022. It was decided to add the asset to the Local Heritage List.