Description

DARTMOUTH

SX8751 RIDGE HILL
673-1/5/207 (North side)
14/09/49 No.4
Newcomen Cottage
(Formerly Listed as:
RIDGE HILL
(North side)
No.4
Newcomen House)

GV II

House. 1866, by Thomas Lidstone, surveyor and architect, for
himself. Mixed construction; stone rubble with red sandstone
and Salcombe sandstone dressings, ornamental timber-framing,
some slate-hanging; stone rubble stacks with different brick
chimneyshafts; slate roof.
PLAN: L-plan. Dining-room wing projecting forward in front of
the kitchen to left; low ancillary service block projecting
northwards behind the parlour to right.
EXTERIOR: 2 storeys with attics. In the style of the C17
merchants' houses, with slate-hung gables and reused oriel
windows. The 2 main fronts, the east end of the parlour and
the south end of the dining-room wing, have stone rubble side
walls, sandstone ashlar ground-floor levels containing sash
windows with glazing bars (the dining-room ones with fat
glazing bars, possibly C18), first-floor small-panel
timber-framing and C17 oriel windows, and slate-hung gables
with smaller C17 oriels. The framing and oriels are obviously
mended and adapted to their new position but contain a great
deal of genuine C17 work. Front doorway immediately to right
of the front wing contains a large C19 studded door in
Jacobean style under a hood carried on late C17 carved scroll
brackets. Directly above, a C16 red sandstone single-light
window lighting the stair landing, another larger 3-light
version on the north side. The other sides in the same style
but using less salvaged work. East end is slate-hung.
Ornamental shaped bargeboards to the main gables except for
the plain replacement at the east end.
INTERIOR: As with the outside the main features of interest
are those salvaged from Newcomen House and the other houses on
Lower Street. The large open-well stair using early C18
twisted balusters incoporates a carved C17 panel; later C18
balusters on the stair from the first-floor landing to the
attics. Oak-panelled dining room with high quality moulded
plaster overmantel of c1640, featuring the Pentecost scene.
Other C17 plaster, notably the single rib ceiling featuring
fleur-de-lys and other motifs in the chamber over the parlour,
and the fragments on the first-floor landing (includes a
plaque dated 1636). Other reused work includes an oak-panelled
overmantel in the chamber over the dining room. Tudor-style
chimneypiece in the parlour probably C19.
HISTORY: The house was fitted out with the salvaged
architectural fragments rescued from the demolition in 1864 of
merchants' houses in Lower Street for the construction of the
Newcomen Road ramp (see sources for old drawing of Lower
Street). The most famous house demolished was the house of
Thomas Newcomen (1663-1729), inventor with Thomas Savery of
the atmospheric steam engine.
(Freeman, Ray: Dartmouth and its Neighbours: Phillimore:
1990-: P.117/PL.65).

Listing NGR: SX8779451692

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26584712

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

• 
  Suffolk: West: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Period Property Manual (New Ed)
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Care and Repair
• 
  Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)