Description

BIDEFORD

SS4526 MEDDON STREET 842-1/6/174 (North side) 01/04/92 Nos.82-94 (Even) Moreton Cottages including front garden wall and gate-piers

GV II

Block of 7 former almshouses built to a single design. 1857. Coursed stone rubble in varying shades of brown; painted dressed stone quoins. Slate roof with crested yellow ridge-tiles (some of the crests missing), replaced in some parts with similar red tiles; slates renewed at No 84 (probably in asbestos) and tarred at Nos 88 and 94, the latter 2 having lost all their ridge-tiles. Fish-scale slating on pent-roofs over ground-storey bays and canopy. Rendered chimneys on the ridge between Nos 84-86, 86-88, 88-90, and 90-92, and on the end-walls at Nos 82 and 94. Chimneys on ridge retain some good 6-sided pots with moulded caps. Picturesque Domestic Revival style. 2 storeys; 7-window range. Middle and end houses are developed as gabled projections, while at the others the upper-storey windows rise into small gables set above eaves-level. Between the storeys is a massive coved canopy over the ground-storey openings. Ground-storey windows take the form of canted wooden bays with 6-paned 2-light wood casements at the front and 3-paned lights at the sides. Doorways and upper-storey windows have flat arches with rough stone voussoirs. Most of the doors have been renewed in late C20, but there are old plank doors at Nos 92 and 94, and in an additional, disused doorway on the left-hand side at No 88; the door at No 94 has non-functional strap-hinges, probably a later addition. Upper-storey windows have 2-light wood casements, each light of 3 panes with margin-panes. Above the window in the centre projection is a blank square panel; the windows in the end-projections have moulded circular panels in the same position and those under the small gables have trefoiled panels. All 7 gables have moulded bargeboards. INTERIOR not inspected. Front garden wall is of stone rubble matching that of the cottages. Flat slatestone coping; 3 flat buttresses, symmetrically placed. At each end is a pair of stone-rubble gate-piers with steeply-pitched gabled caps of a lighter stone resembling limestone. These were the new Buck Almshouses. Foundation stone laid in June 1857. An attractive composition, reflecting the influence of early Domestic Revival architects. (Bideford Weekly Gazette: 1857-: 23.6.1857, P.1).

Listing NGR: SS4506526368

External Links

• Wikidata Q26496685

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Recommended Books

• 
  Kent: North East and East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
• 
  Period property manual, victorian house manual 2 books collection set by ian rock
• 
  A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide