Description

TIVERTON

SS9512 WELLBROOK STREET, Tiverton
848-1/6/334 (North side)
No.16
Heathcoat Hall

GV II

Workingmen's social club. 1874-6 by John Hayward of Exeter.
Grey local stone ashlar front with dressings of Ham stone.
Slated roof. Original chimney of same stone as front wall, at
right-hand end of middle range; top designed as an
entablature. Red brick chimney of about 1900 at left-hand end.
EXTERIOR: single-storey centre range with 2-storey wings.
Symmetrical classical design with 5-bay centre range flanked
by projecting, gabled wings each 2 windows wide. Centre range
has 5 large round arched windows standing on a broad sill
band, the heads of the arches having moulded archivolts with
keystones and continued moulded imposts. Middle window
truncated to accommodate a doorway with projecting stone
surround; moulded architrave, plain frieze and moulded cornice
on brackets. 2-panelled double doors. Outer windows have
4-paned sashes, the whole enclosed by margin lights, those
below impost level being designed as very narrow sashes.
Window above doorway has similar glazing. In the wings,
windows are flat headed with moulded architraves and
keystones; continued sills to second storey, linking up with
continued imposts in centre range. On inner face of each wing
a round-arched doorway with moulded architrave and keystone;
C20 flush wooden doors. Centre range has moulded eaves cornice
carried round sides of the wings; latter have moulded
barge-boards resting on the ends of the eaves cornice, forming
a sort of open triangular pediment.
INTERIOR: not inspected.
HISTORY: the Devon Record Office has John Hayward's bill of
1874 for: `Attending Mr Fisher on the site of intended
workmen's Hall; advising about the buildings, and supplying
ground plan, elevation, and working drawings for them'. The
bill, for »6 6s was paid on 7 December 1876. In that month a
billiard table was bought from George Wright & Co of London,
complete with cues, balls, etc., for 32 guineas.
White's Directory of Devon, 1878, describes the building as
`HEATHCOAT HALL`, AND `WORKING MEN'S INSTITUTION'...built in
1876 by Sir John H Amory-Heathcoat, Bart., M.P., at a cost of
»1,000... It has a large hall, capable of seating 600 persons,
and used for lectures, concerts, &c.; reading, billiard, smoke
rooms; and a circulating library of upwards of 400 volumes'.
F.J. Snell, Chronicles of Twyford, 1892 (p.356) calls it the
Heathcoat Memorial Hall, opened 23rd May 1876, and says it was
`expressly for the benefit of the factory employees, whose
institute prior to this date had been in a large upper room
extending over a row of cottages in Quick's Court'.

Listing NGR: SS9510812640

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26664787

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

• 
  Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Northamptonshire: Buildings of England Series (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Buildings of England)
• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects by Harwood, Richard (2012) Paperback