Description

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 22 February 2021 to correct name and address, remove superfluous source details from the text and to reformat the text to current standards

SS9512
848-1/6/275

TIVERTON
ST PAUL STREET (south side)
Nos.4-18 (Even)

(Formerly listed as Nos.4-18 (Even) ST PAUL'S STREET (south side), previously listed as: ST PAUL'S STREET Nos.1 to 17 (odd), Nos.4 to 18 (even))

14/12/72

GV
II
Terrace of eight middle-class houses, No.4 truncated at east end, the original No.2 presumably demolished. Architect unknown to date. The houses were erected in the 1860s by Caroline Brewin, John Heathcoat's daughter, married to Heathcoat's business partner, Ambrose Brewin. The rentals were intended to endow the church of St Paul's built at the end of the street on a site donated by John Heathcoat. The income from the houses was covenanted to the church.

MATERIALS: Flemish bond yellow brick, rear elevations roughcast but are probably purple stone rubble with brick dressings, matching those on the other side of the street; natural slate roofs; cast-iron window sills, probably made in the Heathcoat foundry; stacks with brick shafts and tapering yellow chimney-pots; cast-iron rainwater goods with downpipes recessed in chases in the front wall. No.4 has had its left end bay knocked off and replaced with a C20 single-storey shop.

PLAN: one of two terraces, lining St Paul Street and conceived architecturally as a sight-line to St Paul's Church, which stands at the west end of the street. The west end corner is recessed and rounded but this is included with Nos 35-41 (odd) Church Street (qv). Each house is double-fronted with end stacks and a central entrance. The original plan was probably the same as Nos 1-17 (odd) - two principal front rooms with a central passage, originally ending in the stair; rear left kitchen, rear right scullery and pantry; rear courtyard bounded by stone rubble wall contains laundry and lavatory. The rear service yards and buildings have not been preserved on this side of the street.

EXTERIOR: two storeys and attic. Each house has a symmetrical three-bay front with deep boxed eaves and a central, recessed, round-headed doorway with rusticated surround and incised Greek key on the doorcase. Four-panel door with fanlight with spoke glazing bars. Outer windows are sixteen-pane hornless sashes, the central first-floor window is a twelve-pane sash. Original attic dormers, two to each house, are gabled with slate-hung sides, plain bargeboards and glazed with two-light casements, two panes per light. Rear elevation of the terrace preserves most of the original sixteen-pane sashes.

INTERIOR: not inspected, but see Nos 1-17 (odd).

HISTORY: these houses have sometimes been confused with Heathcoat's industrial housing for lace makers and other workers in Tiverton. Visually they are connected to the industrial housing as relatively plain, although very late versions of the simple Georgian style favoured by Heathcoat, and they do have the cast-iron window sills that characterise many of the factory-workers' housing and which were probably made in the Heathcoat foundry. Brayshay, however, reports that there is no evidence in the Census Returns that they were ever tenanted by lace-workers and describes them as "a small middle-class enclave in the midst of an essentially working class district".

Listing NGR: SS9517612529

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26664720

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

• 
  The Victorian House Manual (2nd Edition): How They Were Built, Improvements & Refurbishment, Solutions to All Common Defects - Includes Relevant ... ... Properties (Haynes Manual) (Haynes Manuals)
• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: 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)
• 
  Farrow & Ball How to Decorate: Transform your home with paint & paper
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects by Harwood, Richard (2012) Paperback
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)