Description

LAUNCESTON

SX3284 DOCKACRE ROAD 660-1/4/54 No.2 27/02/50 Dockacre House and attached road frontage walls

GV II*

Formerly known as: No.2 HORSE LANE. House just outside town wall. C16 and C17, remodelled early C18. Stuccoed rubble and cob, rendered at rear; stucco on timber-frame of part jettied front; ends partly slate hung; left-hand end jettied; steep dry Delabole slate roof with late C19 crested clay ridge tiles; brick stacks; axial stack left of centre, end stack on right and outbuilt gabled lateral stack at rear left. Long single-depth plan. 2 storeys over basement on left; 10-window range, 5 gables to front; 2-windows to each gable. 4 left-hand bays have deep jetties, underbuilt mid/late C18, the date of surviving glazing with horizontal sliding sashes to form internal passage, 7 mid/late C17 transomed mullioned windows, to first floor left, with old leaded lights and sills of earlier windows, otherwise C18 twelve-pane hornless sashes with thick glazing bars. Also under the jetty are C17 oak windows with pine opening casements similar to those above. C18 pedimented eared doorway slightly right of centre with C18 probably adapted 2-panel door planked on the inside. INTERIOR: 2 bays of C16 roof structure on left, otherwise C17 roof with uneven oak trusses with lapped and pegged collars, trenched purlins and asymmetrical apexes; feet of trusses visible to rear of chambers proving that they predate the late C17 cross windows. C17 floor joists, cross and axial relating to jetties; cyma mouldings to inside of C17 windows; two C17 basement windows blocked from outside; C17 winder stair on left and imperial late C17 stair in large entrance hall with shaped door head, panelled newels, closed string with pulvinated frieze, turned balusters, irregularly spaced steps and a rare pair of late C17 dog gates with turned splat balusters. Late C17 or C18 features include: plank and muntin panelling to hall; bolection-moulded panelling and chimney-piece to right-hand room with later C18 niche with shaped shelves; ovolo-moulded panelling to room left of hall and chimney-piece with dentilled cornice; moulded ceiling cornices and 6-panel doors with small central panels; late C18 inverted-arch over-arch iron gate and moulded ceiling cornice to right-hand chamber; bolection-moulded chimney-piece to chamber towards left with similar grate; 3-panel doors to chambers; many shutters with fielded panels; 4-sided canopied ceiling to chamber further to left. Late C18 or C19 cloam oven fitted to original basement fireplace. Blocked vaulted wine cellar under gateway. Subsidiary features: rubble walls to road frontage and gateway with resited (after discovery in garden 1970) chamfered granite column bases as caps. HISTORY: Of former owners and occupiers documented, Nicholas (Mayor 1716 and 1721) and Elizabeth Herle are remembered for a number of stories surrounding the death of Elizabeth whose large memorial survives behind the organ loft in the Church of Saint Mary Magdalene (qv) inscribed, " Depart ye life ye December 1714 by starvation or other unlawful means." An interesting account of the death of a Nicholas Herle appeared in the Norwich Mercury on Saturday 10th August 1728. "On Sunday last, August 4th died at Hampstead, Nicholas Herle of Launceston in Cornwall, Esq.; a gentleman of good character and great estate who not long since when he was High Sheriff of that county, had the misfortune accidentally to shoot his lady." Dockacre House is reputed to be haunted, possibly by Elizabeth and apparently by others, and there are numerous examples of objects moving from one place to another. In the house is a collection of walking sticks of former occupants and tradition determines that these have to be kept in the correct order lest they rattle in the night. Another eminent occupant was Coryndon Rowe, Physician and Alderman; mayor 1792, 1797, 1810, 1821 and 1829. A son born to this couple in 1801 was to become Sir William Carpenter Rowe. (Buckeridge RGD: Dockacre House: Launceston: 1988-).

Listing NGR: SX3331484628

External Links

• Wikidata Q17532534

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Recommended Books

• 
  A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide
• 
  Churches: An Architectural Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Old House Care and Repair
• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990: Updated version
• 
  Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and The Forest of Dean: Vale and Forest of Dean Pt. 2 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)