Summary

Former merchant’s house built in 1603. Remodelled, extended, and re-fronted in the mid-C19.

Description

Former merchant’s house built in 1603. Remodelled, extended, and re-fronted in the mid-C19.

MATERIALS: built of local Culm sandstone rubble that has been rendered. The roof is covered in slate tiles. Gable-end brick chimney stacks.

EXTERIOR: the two-storey principal elevation is arranged as four bays with dressed rusticated stone quoins; the three bays to the right form the original extent of the early-C17 house, whilst the bay to the left is a mid-C19 extension. The late-C19 recessed doorway has a four-panel door within a glazed surround, and panelled reveals. Pilasters and console brackets support the entablature, and above is an inserted mid-C20, five-light oriel window. The other windows are two-pane hornless sash windows with margin glazing to all but the narrower ground-floor window to the central bay. This window denotes the position of an earlier doorway. All of these windows have moulded architraves and bracketed sills. There is a plat band at first-floor level and a dentilled eaves cornice beneath the moulded gutter box. A wide, late-C19 or early-C20 panelled door to the extreme left-hand side of the façade gives access to the rear of the property.

The rubble stone rear wall of the C17 house is extant. C19 and C20 rear additions.

INTERIOR: features of note include a C17-style plaster ceiling; a C19 staircase with turned and fluted newel posts and balusters to a scrolled handrail; C19 marble fireplaces to the front and rear ground floor rooms; and C19 pedimented doorcases.

History

4 Fore Street was rebuilt following a fire in 1602 and forms part of a row of early-C17 houses in Cullompton. The building was remodelled in the mid-C19 when it was extended to the south and a new frontage added. The rubble stone wall behind the façade though is continuous with the front wall of neighbouring 2 Fore Street, the Manor House Hotel, demonstrating that they were built together in 1603.

4 Fore Street was incorporated into the neighbouring hotel in the 1980s.

Reasons for Listing

4 Fore Street is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* as an example of an early-C17 town house that, although re-fronted and extended in the C19, retains evidence of its original extent in the surviving historic fabric.

Historic interest:

* for its contribution to our understanding of the development of domestic architecture from the early C17 onwards.

Group value:

* for its strong group value with the Manor House Hotel at 2 Fore Street (Grade II*), The Walronds at 6 Fore Street (Grade I), and 8 Fore Street (Grade II*) which together form an impressive row of early-C17 houses.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26611659

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

• 
  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings
• 
  Huddersfield in 50 Buildings
• 
  Setting up a Listed Building Heritage Partnership Agreement: Historic England Advice Note 5
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Buildings of England)
• 
  Drawing up a Local Listed Building Consent Order: Historic England Advice Note 6
• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)