Description

BARNSTAPLE

SS5533SE HIGH STREET
684-1/7/145 (West side)
31/08/88 No.65

GV II

House and shop. Late C17 with altered front of late C19 or
early C20; front block is probably older. Walls, where the
material is exposed in the front and left side wall of the
back block, and in the rear part of the left side wall of the
front block, are of plastered red brick (probably Flemish
bond) on a high stone rubble plinth. Rear wall of front block
has been rebuilt in late C20 brick. Front (to street) is
stuccoed.
Roofs are slated, with each block hipped at the front; rear
part of roof of front block has been demolished and replaced
by a C20 flat roof. C18 or early C19 red brick chimney, with
projecting courses forming a cap, on left side wall of front
block. Back block has similar chimney at front end of left
side wall.
Plan consists of front and back blocks, each one room wide,
separated by a courtyard; front block is 2 rooms deep with
central staircase, back block one room deep with rear
staircase. The blocks were never connected by a first-floor
gallery, as occurs elsewhere. Ground storey has been gutted
and now consists of one deep room extending as far as the rear
staircase, the courtyard having been glazed over.
3 storeys with garret in front block; 2 storeys with garret in
back block. Front is 1-window wide. Ground and 2nd storeys
have a tall round-arched opening with moulded architrave and
keyblock; the shop windows within the opening have been
reconstructed since about 1927. Above the arch is an
unsupported entablature with enriched cornice and guttae.
Third storey has a single casement window with moulded
architrave; ornate cast-iron balcony in front. Bracketed eaves
cornice and parapet complete the facade. Earlier brickwork at
rear has raised band at first-floor level. Back block has 2
box-framed, 6-pane sashes in front wall of upper storey, and
another in each of the side walls; left side wall has in
addition an original mullioned-and-transomed wood casement
window with transom set high up.
INTERIOR: rear ground-floor fireplace of front block has plain
wood lintel and lining of compacted red brick dust with
incised lines to imitate brick courses. Upper floors have
geometrical wood staircase with thin square-section balusters.
First floor has a good C19 cast-iron grate in rear room and
2-panelled doors with applied bolection mouldings.
Second floor has fireplaces with early C18 moulded wood
surrounds and C19 cast-iron grates; behind the surround, front
room fireplace has ovolo-moulded wood lintel with run-out
stops, the interior and outer faces of the opening covered
with white and yellow plaster, the yellow bearing faint traces
of a pattern.
Rear wall of room contains truss from earlier, and lower,
roof. Remains of moulded butt purlins and ridge; trenched
collars held by nail and peg at each end, the main section
between the principals cut away. Hip rafters, which appear to
be original, are nailed. Trusses have notched apexes; gouged
carpenter's marks. In roof space there are visible a stone
chimney breast on right hand side and a brick one on left-hand
side.
Back block has a large fireplace in left side of ground storey
with plain brick jambs and plain wood lintel; brick chimney
breast in approximate English bond. Remains of a panelled room
to rear of fireplace with bolection-moulded panelling in 2
heights surviving on left and rear walls; box-cornice. An
early C18 cupboard with round-arched double doors has been
inserted on left side. Evidence of former passage on
right-hand side of room. At rear a tight, early or mid C19
wooden geometrical stair with shaped step-ends and thin
square-section balusters. C18 or early C19 roof-structure with
principal rafters crossing at apex to hold the ridge; lightly
trenched purlins, no collar.
This is one of the 2 best of the Barnstaple houses with
detached back blocks, themselves a rare English urban plan
type. The roof of the front block is of considerable local
interest.
(Baxter J & Baxter J: Barnstaple Yesterday: 1980-: PLS 77,
78).

Listing NGR: SS5571433375

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26664958

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 Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  Drawing up a Local Listed Building Consent Order: Historic England Advice Note 6
• 
  Liverpool: Pevsner City Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings