Description

LAUNCESTON

SX3284 DOCKACRE ROAD
660-1/4/54 No.2
27/02/50 Dockacre House and attached road
frontage walls

GV II*

Formerly known as: No.2 HORSE LANE.
House just outside town wall. C16 and C17, remodelled early
C18. Stuccoed rubble and cob, rendered at rear; stucco on
timber-frame of part jettied front; ends partly slate hung;
left-hand end jettied; steep dry Delabole slate roof with late
C19 crested clay ridge tiles; brick stacks; axial stack left
of centre, end stack on right and outbuilt gabled lateral
stack at rear left. Long single-depth plan.
2 storeys over basement on left; 10-window range, 5 gables to
front; 2-windows to each gable. 4 left-hand bays have deep
jetties, underbuilt mid/late C18, the date of surviving
glazing with horizontal sliding sashes to form internal
passage, 7 mid/late C17 transomed mullioned windows, to first
floor left, with old leaded lights and sills of earlier
windows, otherwise C18 twelve-pane hornless sashes with thick
glazing bars. Also under the jetty are C17 oak windows with
pine opening casements similar to those above. C18 pedimented
eared doorway slightly right of centre with C18 probably
adapted 2-panel door planked on the inside.
INTERIOR: 2 bays of C16 roof structure on left, otherwise C17
roof with uneven oak trusses with lapped and pegged collars,
trenched purlins and asymmetrical apexes; feet of trusses
visible to rear of chambers proving that they predate the late
C17 cross windows. C17 floor joists, cross and axial relating
to jetties; cyma mouldings to inside of C17 windows; two C17
basement windows blocked from outside; C17 winder stair on
left and imperial late C17 stair in large entrance hall with
shaped door head, panelled newels, closed string with
pulvinated frieze, turned balusters, irregularly spaced steps
and a rare pair of late C17 dog gates with turned splat
balusters.
Late C17 or C18 features include: plank and muntin panelling
to hall; bolection-moulded panelling and chimney-piece to
right-hand room with later C18 niche with shaped shelves;
ovolo-moulded panelling to room left of hall and chimney-piece
with dentilled cornice; moulded ceiling cornices and 6-panel
doors with small central panels; late C18 inverted-arch
over-arch iron gate and moulded ceiling cornice to right-hand
chamber; bolection-moulded chimney-piece to chamber towards
left with similar grate; 3-panel doors to chambers; many
shutters with fielded panels; 4-sided canopied ceiling to
chamber further to left. Late C18 or C19 cloam oven fitted to
original basement fireplace. Blocked vaulted wine cellar under
gateway. Subsidiary features: rubble walls to road frontage
and gateway with resited (after discovery in garden 1970)
chamfered granite column bases as caps.
HISTORY: Of former owners and occupiers documented, Nicholas
(Mayor 1716 and 1721) and Elizabeth Herle are remembered for a
number of stories surrounding the death of Elizabeth whose
large memorial survives behind the organ loft in the Church of
Saint Mary Magdalene (qv) inscribed, " Depart ye life ye
December 1714 by starvation or other unlawful means." An
interesting account of the death of a Nicholas Herle appeared
in the Norwich Mercury on Saturday 10th August 1728. "On
Sunday last, August 4th died at Hampstead, Nicholas Herle of
Launceston in Cornwall, Esq.; a gentleman of good character
and great estate who not long since when he was High Sheriff
of that county, had the misfortune accidentally to shoot his
lady."
Dockacre House is reputed to be haunted, possibly by Elizabeth
and apparently by others, and there are numerous examples of
objects moving from one place to another. In the house is a
collection of walking sticks of former occupants and tradition
determines that these have to be kept in the correct order
lest they rattle in the night. Another eminent occupant was
Coryndon Rowe, Physician and Alderman; mayor 1792, 1797, 1810,
1821 and 1829. A son born to this couple in 1801 was to become
Sir William Carpenter Rowe.
(Buckeridge RGD: Dockacre House: Launceston: 1988-).

Listing NGR: SX3331484628

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17532534

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

• 
  Period Property Manual (New Ed)
• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House
• 
  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  For the Record
• 
  London 6: Westminster (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England): Westminster v. 6
• 
  ENGLAND GUIDE TO POST WAR LISTED: A Guide to Post-war Listed Buildings