Description

ASHBURTON

SX7569 NORTH STREET
849-1/10/104 (East side)
07/08/51 No.4

GV II

House and shop; reputed to have been the Mermaid Inn in C17.
Late medieval, remodelled C16/17; mid C19 shop front. Rendered
solid front; granite archway. Slated roof. Stone-rubble
chimney with tapered cap on each gable end. 2 storeys with
garret. 2 widely-spaced windows wide. To right of ground
storey a chamfered, pointed granite arch; recessed within it a
studded plank door with square-headed C17 wood frame, ovolo
and hollow-moulded with urn stops. To left of it a blocked
doorway (now a 2-paned shop window) with lower jamb stones of
chamfered granite; relieving arch of slatestone voussoirs.
Remainder of ground storey occupied by shop front with
half-glazed door flanked by 4-paned canted display windows.
Entablature across the whole shop front, surmounted by a name
board and blindcase. Upper storey has 8-paned sash windows in
recessed box-frames; these are set in wider blocked openings
with the terminals of former hood-moulds at either end. 2
pent-roofed dormers, their lower parts cutting into the top of
the wall; small-paned Yorkshire sash to left, 3-light wood
casement with 3 panes per light to right.
Town houses with medieval exterior detail are very rare in
Devon. In 1646, during the Civil War, General Fairfax is
traditionally believed to have made his headquarters here. In
1637 Lawrence Blundell placed a »4 per annum rent charge on
the Mermaid Inn, payable to Ashburton Grammar School.
(Pilkington F: Ashburton. The Dartmoor Town: Callington,
Cornwall: 1978-: 72; White W: Directory of Devonshire:
Sheffield: 1850-: 464).

Listing NGR: SX7560169906

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26568936

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

• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of Historic Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Huddersfield in 50 Buildings
• 
  Northamptonshire: Buildings of England Series (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy