Description

DARTMOUTH

SX874510 DUKE STREET
673-1/8/110 (North side)
14/09/49 No.10
The Butterwalk

GV I

One of a row of merchants' houses, now a shop and cafeteria
with accommodation above. The row is dated 1635 and 1640 (this
house includes the date 1635 and the initials of Mark
Hawkings), various minor later alterations and a major
renovation programme in the 1950s after severe bomb blast
damage in 1943; David Nye and Partners of Westminster, London
(architect), PW Wilkins and Sons Ltd. of Torquay (builders).
Mixed construction; side and back walls of stone rubble, front
is an ornate display of timber-framing with plastered upper
floor, and the walk carried on granite piers; front and back
stone rubble stacks with C20 rendered brick chimneyshafts in
left party wall shared with No.12 (qv); slate roof.
PLAN: Built end onto the street, the ground plan is one room
wide and 2 rooms deep with remains of a side passage along
right (east) side. C19 winder stair rises just back from the
front door; second floor shows position of original newel
stair further back, it would have been onto a first-floor
landing halfway through the first-floor level where there is a
small unlit and unheated room between the front and back
rooms. A blocked doorway in the right party wall suggests that
the upper floors of No.8 (qv) were originally part of this
house.
EXTERIOR: 3 storeys and attic; one-window first-floor and
2-window second-floor range. Ornate jettied timber-framed
front forming part of a unified front comprising Nos 6-12
(even) (qv), the houses of the Dartmouth Butterwalk. The first
floor oversails the Butterwalk and is supported on a carved
bressummer on an arcade of granite piers with moulded capitals
under blocks carved with geometric and heraldic motifs, one of
them dated 1635. Recessed shop front is mid C20 but the
doorway to right is original, large frame with multiple
mouldings and ornate carved stops, and contains contemporary
panelled door on wrought-iron strap hinges. First floor of
exposed timber-framing with central original oriel window, 8
forward lights with moulded mullions and sill, carved corner
posts, and supporting brackets carved as animals, internal
turned centre-post with carved capital, iron casements and
rectangular panes of leaded glass. Largely-original moulded
small-panel framing each side, the faces of the original
timbers carved with strapwork patterns and guilloche. End
posts (on party walls) are carved as pairs of Ionic pilasters
on pedestals under carved brackets supporting the second-floor
jetty, one as Samson and the Lion. Upper jetty has carved
fascia including the initials of Mark Hawkings. Plastered
above. Second floor has 2 oriels, smaller versions of the
first-floor one, projecting from a continuous row of mullioned
windows (now blocked). Attic contains a pair of C20
twelve-pane sashes under a projecting gable supported on a
pair of large carved timber brackets carved as emblems of
plenty.
Rear elevation is painted stone rubble to slate-hung gable and
contains mid C20 twelve-pane sash windows with glazing bars.
Rear left return wall is a plastered timber-frame and contains
some original C17 oak mullioned windows.
INTERIOR: Exceptionally high quality and well-preserved.
Original features include a section of the pine passage
screen, panelled partitions on first floor (some possibly late
C17), and the first-floor front parlour - panelling with
carved frieze including the date 1634 flanked by pegasi;
granite fireplace with carved lintel, imported Dutch brick
cheeks and back, good plasterwork overmantel featuring the
Pentecost; ornamental plaster ceiling, a single rib design
with bosses and angle sprays (hollow rib pattern ceiling with
cherubs to the middle room). Original newel stair survives
from second floor to the attic rooms. Plain carpentry exposed
on the upper floors. Other C17 features are probably hidden.
Roof not inspected.
HISTORY: This house forms a unit of the Dartmouth Butterwalk,
which is one of the finest rows of merchants' houses dating
from the first half of the C17 in England. The Butterwalk was
built on reclaimed land as part of the same scheme which
created the New Quay. The western half was leased to William
Gurney in 1628, the eastern half was leased to Mark Hawkings.
Both began to build, but in 1635 William Gurney sold his part
to Hawkings who completed the row by 1640 at a cost of nearly
»2500. If the initials are anything to go by, he converted
this house for his own use. The row originally continued one
house further east; the Butterwalk arcade was of 13 granite
piers and is now of 11. Backed onto river when originally
built.
(Freeman, Ray: Dartmouth and its Neighbours: Phillimore:
1990-: P.80-83; Devon Buildings: Laithwaite, Michael: Town
Houses up to 1660: Devon Books: 1990-: P.113-5).

Listing NGR: SX8777551407

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17527093

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Cambridgeshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects by Harwood, Richard (2012) Paperback
• 
  London 6: Westminster (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England): Westminster v. 6
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
• 
  Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House