Description

BUCKFASTLEIGH

SX7366 FORE STREET
1011-1/6/75 (South side)
06/01/83 Nos.25 AND 26
including rear stable block to 25
and niche with tap to 26
(Formerly Listed as:
FORE STREET
(South side)
Nos.25 AND 26)

GV II

House, divided into 2, including storage building (perhaps
former stable) at right-angles to rear of No.25. In church
ownership. c1790-1810, perhaps a recasting of an earlier
building, extensive late C20 alterations. Stone rubble,
stuccoed and blocked out; slate roof, gabled at ends; stacks
with rendered shafts. Storage or stable building local grey
limestone rubble with a corrugated asbestos roof.
Plan: somewhat altered in C20, originally 2 rooms wide and 2
rooms deep with a through-passage to the rear courtyard
(Fowlers Court). Rear of passage (No.25) blocked off. No.25 is
heated from left end stacks, the rear stack very massive with
a bread oven shared with the Post Office adjoining at left
(qv).
Cartway entrance to the yard to right of No.26 with at least
one blocked doorway from the cartway into No.26. The storage
building bounds the left side of the yard behind the houses,
which is associated with a court of domestic and industrial
buildings.
EXTERIOR: 2 storeys. Asymmetrical but regular 3-window front
with adjacent front doors in the centre. Eaves board. Moulded
timber cornice with fascia with scalloped decoration above
ground floor bow windows extends to left and right as a deep
platband. Matching 6-panel timber front doors (C20 replicas of
former doors but with upper panels glazed), the left one
(No.25) slightly wider have doorcases with pilasters with sunk
panels and overlights, No.26 is blind. Attractive late C18 or
early C19 16-pane bow windows (in poor condition at time of
survey (1992)) to the ground floor with external shutters. 2
outer first-floor windows are late C18 or early C19 16-pane
sashes, similar 12-pane sash in centre. No.25 has a C20 attic
dormer with casement window - both houses said formerly to
have had dormers with diamond leaded panes. Round-headed niche
with tap on right return of No.26 is part of Buckfastleigh's
early piped water system. To rear the yard, retaining some
pitched stone paving, is bounded by the stub of a masonry wall
to the right and long storage shed with monopitch roof, which
has 4 doorways, 2 with plank doors, and 2 windows.
INTERIOR: No.25 modernised but preserving some 4-panel doors.
Stair replaced. This house has a particularly attractive
frontage and preserves its rear court, important to the urban
texture of Buckfastleigh.
Historical note: C19 photographs show part of the rear
elevation with the rear porch to the cross passage. The tap in
the niche is a survival from the 1892 piped water system to
Buckfastleigh which followed an outbreak of typhoid.

Listing NGR: SX7400166124

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26512509

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

• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
• 
  The Victorian House Manual (2nd Edition): How They Were Built, Improvements & Refurbishment, Solutions to All Common Defects - Includes Relevant ... ... Properties (Haynes Manual) (Haynes Manuals)
• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Norfolk 1: Norwich and North-East: Norwich and North-east v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy
• 
  Surrey (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)