Summary

Merchant House was built as a high-status residence in the mid-16th century and was extended in the late 16th century. The house may have been built for William Godolphin, although it is also associated with Thomas Hicks. Until 1822 it was lived in by a series of Mayors of Launceston and other professionals. The building had various commercial uses in the C19, including shops on the ground floor, which remain today. The upper floors are now in single residential use and ownership.

Description

Merchant House was built as a high-status residence in the mid-C16 and extended in the late-C16. The house may have been built for William Godolphin, although it is also associated with Thomas Hicks. Until 1822 it was lived in by a series of Mayors and other professionals. The building had various commercial uses in the C19, including shops on the ground floor, which remain today. The upper floors are now in single residential use and ownership.

MATERIALS: timber-frame with stone end walls, dry Delabole-slate roofs, rubble and brick lateral stacks to number 11, and a red-brick end stack to the rear kitchen wing. Painted slate-hanging and render.

PLAN: number 11 and 11a is roughly rectangular with former kitchen wing projecting at north end. Number 11 has a south cross passage leading to a newel stair projection. Rear corridors on the upper floors. Number 13 attached to the south end is rectangular with a one-room plan on first and second floors.

EXTERIOR: both phases of construction are of three storeys over cellars. Number 11 is of two bays with a hipped roof but the internal valley from the gabled roof of its first phase survives. The slate-hung upper floors have jetties on triple-moulded stone corbels at the ends. On the first floor are C16 or C17 oriel windows with central mullions and moulded sills on shaped brackets; each have pairs of C18 horizontal-sliding sashes and side lights. Above are C16 or C17 four-light mullioned windows with C18 casements and a partly blocked window on the south wall. The entrance at ground floor has a granite step and moulded oak frame containing a C16 studded oak door of 15 panels. The rest of the ground floor, built out beneath the jetty, contains shopfronts (late C19 to number 11, left, and mid-C20 to 11a, right). Below the shopfronts are granite stall-risers and squat basement windows.

Number 13 is set back from the elevation of number 11. It has a slate hung gabled front with a first-floor jetty, brought forwards in the C19, and triple-moulded stone corbel and splay at the south angle. Window to the first and second floors with C18 paired sashes. Late-C19 glazed shopfront with angled corner, iron shafts with capitals, glazed door. Similar shopfront facing Broad Street. This elevation has a first-floor window with C18 paired sashes in a moulded granite frame, possibly late C16. Its hood-mould has label stops inscribed ‘T’ and ‘H’. Projecting granite string course above and pair of late-C19 four-paned sash windows below the eaves.

The rear elevations of number 11, facing a small courtyard, are largely slate-hung over split laths and lime render, including the curved staircase projection to the south which has a slim window with leaded lights to the top floor, a nine-light fixed timber casement to the first floor, and a small single-light window to the ground floor. C19 plank timber door at ground floor, and C17 or C18 horizontal sliding sashes to the upper floors (lighting a rear corridor on first and second floor), above a C19 planked timber door. Kitchen wing to the north of random rubble with slate drip-courses with a later single-storey extension to the ground floor. This wing has a C19 or later horizontal sliding sash to the second floor, and an oriel window with paired C18 vertical sliding sashes with return lights to the first floor. Windows to the ground-floor kitchen extension are C19 or later.

INTERIOR: both phases retain evidence of complex construction and alteration. Throughout the doors are largely C18, with a mix of flush and framed panelling, many with earlier ovolo-moulded door frames with stops. Historic door furniture and ironmongery survives, including H-L and butterfly hinges. There is a remarkable survival of layers of historic wallpapers from the 1880s to the 1920s, including wood graining effects to matchboard. Only the principal spaces and phasing evidence are described here; for further information and detail see Sources.

GROUND FLOOR: former cross passage behind the mid-C16 entrance with C18 moulded plaster cornice and C18 wainscotting of horizontal boards. The passage opens to a small lobby with an arched doorframe to the principal staircase; the frame is flanked by early-C17 timber caryatids which may have come from a chimneypiece to the fireplace in the ‘plaster room’ on the first floor. In the wing, the former kitchen has a flag slate floor, lath-and-plaster ceiling (some historic wall plaster also survives), hooks to the ceiling beams, in-built timber cupboards on the north and west walls, and on the east wall a brick inglenook fireplace (range removed) with a timber shelf on brackets and hanging brackets above, and a washing copper. There is a blocked doorway on the west wall and a C21 partition to the south with relocated C19 doors.

The timber winder staircase has exposed framing on the external-facing walls and wainscoting below. At the head of the staircase is a carved newel post, understood to have been salvaged from an earlier staircase.

FIRST FLOOR: the rear corridor in number 11 is wainscoted and has another shouldered-arch doorframe to the staircase to the second floor, again flanked by early-C17 timber caryatids. Door on the west side to the dining room or ‘plaster room’ (south) with frame of high-quality mouldings and stops. The room has a floor of wide elm boards and mid-C16 plaster ceiling of geometric ribs and rosettes (restored in the C21) in three fields separated by flat moulded beams. Contemporary stone chimney piece in the east wall (within a C21 timber surround) with moulded arch that has spandrels carved with faces, stops carved with rosettes, and a central plasterwork coat of arms representing the marriage of the Glanville and Broken families in the early-C17. The south wall has a relocated C18 bolection moulded chimneypiece, fitted with a C19 cast-iron grate in arched surround. Set into the wall to its right is a framed and panelled cupboard. In the north wall are two fixed doors, probably inserted when the building was used as a boarding house.

The living room (in the first floor of number 13) has plastered walls but framed and panelled seats to the south and west windows. West window flanked by two alcoves, fitted with C19 shelves above cupboards, possibly made by Frederick Kneebone. Grey-marble chimneypiece on north wall fitted with a cast-iron and tiled fireplace grate (a catalogue piece datable to 1895-1898).

At the north end of the rear corridor is a kitchen with C21 fittings although some earlier joinery including cupboards with reused C17 butterfly hinges survive.

SECOND FLOOR: rear corridor wainscoted on the west wall. An east-west corridor between number 13 and number 11 has timber-framed and horizontally boarded walls, covered with remnant layers of historic wallpaper, with transom lights above the doors to the rooms. At the west end is a cupboard. North is a bedroom, its east and south walls of framed panelling, horizontal boarding, some carved fluted panelling, and fixed doors, again with remnant historic wallpapers. The adjacent kitchenette is clad in pine matchboarding (to the historic ceiling height) with C21 kitchen fittings and a high-level window to the north. South of the corridor (in number 13) is a bedroom (subdivided until the C21). Floor of elm boards (up to 15 inches wide). North and east walls plastered. South and west walls covered in pine matchboard. Against the east wall are a series of framed and flush-panelled cupboard doors covered with remnants of historic wallpaper and shop-window shutters; these have been relocated as a decorative feature. A fireplace on the north wall has a moulded surround and C19 cast-iron grate and surround with a tin-plate hearth. In the north-east corner of the room is a high-level window.

On the top floor of the kitchen wing is a room with small three-light window with strap hinges in the north-east corner, and fireplace on north wall with a C19 timber surround and cast-iron surround and grate.

The shop units to numbers 11, 11a and 13 retain some C19 fittings such as wainscoting. Fireplaces and other features may survive behind later wall-linings. A narrow timber stair in number 11 leads to the second-floor, where the walls are clad in pine matchboarding; a corner store room retains C18 horizontal boarding similar to elsewhere in the building.

The ROOF SPACES are understood to retain their C16 and C17 structures including oak trusses with lap-dovetail collar joints and trenched purlins.

CELLARS: the cellar walls are mainly of limestone rubble construction; some historic plaster survives in the middle cellar. In the north cellar, the northern wall (to 9 High Street) has two finely constructed pilasters/piers of dressed granite blocks and slate fillets. On the west wall there is a full height canted opening which has been altered and partially blocked. The middle cellar is three bays east to west, defined by rough cross-beams on uprights, both of which may be reused. To the north is a low stone bench. To the west are two openings with sloping cills halfway up the wall and canted reveals; they are fitted with small windows. To the east is a high-level blocked opening which is understood to contain the remains of a staircase. The south cellar is also three bays east to west, as above. On the west wall are two blocked openings, one as above and one full-height (these were filled in when the ground floor to number 13 was built-out), and on the south wall are two blocked openings (one possibly repurposed as a coal chute) flanking a blind arch-headed recess of unknown purpose.

History

Merchant House, on the corner of High Street and the Market Square in the centre of Launceston, comprises two post-medieval buildings that were originally one property, constructed for entertaining and civic functions. It is thought that 11 High Street (now 11 and 11a) was built in the mid-C16 (but on top of an earlier cellar) and 13 High Street was constructed as its extension in the late-C16.

In 1589 the property had four joint owners including Frances Godolphin and William Grills of Tavistock who was Mayor of Launceston in 1584 and 1595. It has been suggested that number 11 had been built for Godolphin. Also associated with the house is Thomas Hicks, merchant and Mayor of Launceston five times between 1535 to 1590: the initials ‘T’ and ‘H’ appear on the frame of the south window of No.13 and it is known that Hicks died in a building on High Street in 1595; this may have been Merchant House, as his will describes rooms in his house which remain identifiable within the present building.

After 1595 the house, or parts of it, was occupied by the Carpenter family, of which at least five male members were Mayor of Launceston throughout the C18, and the Bolt family who married into the Carpenters, and subsequently the Rowes.

Merchant House was still one property in 1842 but around 1865 13 High Street was principally occupied by Harriet and Charles Pode; she ran part of the property as an Eating House. In 1882, as a widow, she married Frederick Kneebone, formerly a boarder in her house, who in 1884 took over the shop for his china, glass and earthenware business. Kneebone was also a cabinet maker, and it has been suggested that he was responsible for some of the building’s C19 joinery. Frederick Kneebone junior lived at number 13 into the mid C20. The shop at number 11 remained a separate, changeable business, and a ground-floor shop unit at 11b was created in the 1950s, replacing a window.

The entire building is today in single ownership. The ground and first floors of number 11 and the ground floor of 11a and 13 remain in commercial use. The upper floors are residential. The building was sensitively repaired and restored in the 2020s which, along with limited dendrochronological analysis in 2022, revealed new material evidence about its construction and phasing.

A comprehensive history of the buildings is provided in the Sources, below.

Reasons for Listing

Merchant House, 11, 11a and 13 High Street, Launceston, Cornwall is listed at Grade II* for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:
* for the high survival of C16 and C17 fabric throughout the building, including the principal structures and roof timbers, a plasterwork ceiling and a substantial stone fire-surround on the first floor;
* for the survival of an earlier cellar beneath numbers 11 and 11a;
* the fabric and features from the C18 and later adds to its special interest;
* the exterior of the building retains its mid-C16 character, and is a significant building within the townscape;

Historic interest:
* located in the historic core of Launceston, the building provides evidence of development of the town, from the mid-C16;
* the building has historic connections to significant local families and notable local businesses, which add to its story and interest;
* Merchant House has the potential to reveal more about its plan, features and uses throughout time.

Group value:
* with other domestic vernacular buildings in the historic centre of Launceston, including 4 High Street and the Judge’s Kitchen, and 26 Church Street which are listed at Grade II*.

External Links

• Wikidata Q17532877

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.

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