Description

BIDEFORD

SS4526 ROPE WALK
842-1/5/218 (South side)
Blackmore's Depository

GV II

Collar factory; later furniture depository, now used as
workshops, shops and keep-fit studio. Probably 1898 by RT
Hookway of Bideford. Cream-brick front with dressings of red
brick and a dark red stone resembling sandstone; rear wall of
stone rubble. Hipped slate roof. Cream-brick chimney on centre
of rear wall. Single-depth rectangular plan.
3 storeys; single-storeyed section at left-hand end. 22-window
range, the single-storeyed section with in addition 5 windows
flanked by a doorway to right and a cart-entrance to left.
Main range designed with a strong vertical emphasis, the
openings set in shallow recesses rising through all 3 storeys.
Middle recess occupies a gabled projection with main entrance
in ground storey and a loading door in each upper storey. The
recesses have jambs and segmental arches of red brick, the
arches with keystones; the windows have beneath them
rectangular panels outlined in red brick.
Main entrance has stone jambs and a round, cream-brick arch
with keystone and flat stone archivolt, the arch enclosed
within a rectangular stone frame. Double-doors, each with 6
heavily-moulded panels and an ornate iron door handle;
fanlight with radial glazing-bars. On the archivolt is painted
BLACKMORES' DEPOSITORY. Loading doors have jambs and segmental
arches of red brick, the arches with keystones; double plank
doors in upper part of opening, the lower part occupied by a
4-paned window. At the top of the third-storey loading-door a
projecting iron girder with a pulley-wheel at the end.
Openings within the flanking recesses (including 7
ground-storey doorways) have segmental arches of cream brick
with keystones. Doorways contain plank doors with 3-paned
fanlights.
Windows have 3 mullioned-and-transomed lights. Simple
red-brick eaves cornice composed of 2 stepped courses. On the
centre of the ridge (visible from Kingsley Road) is a square
cupola with ogee roof and weather-vane.
At right-hand end is a single-storey lean-to masked by the
bases of 2 recesses like those on the main front; it is not
clear if these were part of an extension later demolished, or
one that was never completed. Single-storeyed section to left
is a plainer version of the main range, the window-openings
with segmental cream-brick arches, linked at springing and
sill-levels by red-brick bands; windows have the same 3-light,
mullioned-and-transomed frames. Doorway at right-hand end is
similar, but with red-brick jambs; panelled double-doors,
3-paned fanlights.
Cart-entrance to left has plain lintel, probably a girder
cased in cement; double plank doors.
INTERIOR not inspected, but former club photographs inside
main entrance showed a staircase with thin square balusters
(probably of iron) and a continuous wooden handrail.
Kingpost-and-ridge roof-trusses. This building is marked as a
collar factory on the 25in OS map of 1904. The site was
previously used for rope-making.
(Bideford Weekly Gazette: 11 Jan; Oct 5: 1898-1901; Wilson's
Bideford Directory: 1898-1901; Kelly's Directories:
Devonshire: 1918-1923).

Listing NGR: SS4542826859

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26580439

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

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  Liverpool: Pevsner City Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
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  Devon (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings
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  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)