Description

1. 5180 HIGH STREET (South Side) East gate (Part of No 2) SX 8060 SW 1/22 7.1.52.

I GV

2. Totnes town defences The Anglo-Saxon borough defences probably enclosed the top of the hill, commanding the navigable reaches of the Dart, on the line later followed by the medieval wall, whose circuit is still marked by South Street, Guildhall Yard and North Street. The motte and bailey castle (qv) built at the Conquest by Judhael de Totnes was inserted at the highest point of the hill, in the north-west corner of the Saxon burgh. The counterscarp of the defences of the inner bailey may preserve the line of the borough curtilage. The 1st murage grant was received in 1264; a 2nd which was surrendered because nothing was being done, in 1355. The walls mainly date to the late C14 with extensive repairs in 1639. Remains of the defences survive at the North Gate, Castle Street; No 2, High Street; and the Baste Walls, South Street (qv). The West Gate, formerly situated opposite No 79 High Street (qv) was demolished circa 1810. The East Gate Probably altered and refronted circa 1835 in Gothic style when the former round-arched entrance and footway (the "needles eye") was replaced by a wide, flat-arched gate-way. 2 storeys above archway. Welsh slate roof. Square wooden bell turret with tented roof and weathervane. East front stuccoed with coved cornice and crenellated parapet: string at 2nd floor level with clock above added circa 1880; splayed oriel window to 1st floor with crenellated parapet. 4-centred arched gateway with hoodmould. West front also stuccoed with covedcornice and crenellated parapet with clock belay: 1st floor with 3 sash windows with glazing bars, with panels between and coved cornice. The room over the gate has early C16 linenfold panelling and a frieze carved with reliefs of heads, grotesques and arabesques reputed to have been brought from Berry Pomeroy Castle. The decorated plaster ceiling and marble fireplace dates to circa 1835. In 1850 Lord Seymour purchased Gate House and opened it as a Mechanic's Institute and Reading Room. The building now forms part of the Berry Pomeroy estate office (No 2 High Street). [M. Laithwaite].

Listing NGR: SX8027660426

External Links

• Wikidata Q17527141

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