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

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26496685

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

• 
  For the Record
• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair by Hunt. Roger ( 2008 ) Hardcover
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Buildings of England)