Description

BRIDGWATER

ST2936NE FRIARN STREET
736-1/11/79 (South side)
24/03/50 No.15
and attached front railings and rear
garden walls

GV II*

House. c1700. Flemish bond brick with red headers and yellow
stretchers, steep double-pitched pantile roof, stone coping to
parapet and gables, brick stacks to left gable ends and 3 wide
Delabole slate steps to door. Double-depth plan.
3 storeys with semi-basement; 4-window range. Segmental arches
of alternate red and yellow bricks over window recesses; all
the windows, in diminishing heights, are 6/6-pane sashes in
forward frames. Platbands between floors. A fine shell hood on
fretted brackets is over a moulded architrave; the
right-of-centre door has 8 raised-and-fielded panels, small
panels to centre and top below a blind fanlight. The basement
window to left is blocked, those flanking the door have thick
glazing bars.
The steep pitch of the roof, the irregular bond to parapet
wall and the style of shell hood suggest a former eaves
cornice. The 2 lower storeys of rear were altered mid C19; a
2-storey verandah has a pantile roof with cast-iron trellis to
supports on first floor and plain poles to ground floor. The
ground below is paved with cream ceramic tiles with small
black tiles at the corners; flagstones to right of the area
steps, now covered over.
INTERIOR: the stair-hall to right has a mid C19 open-well
open-string staircase with fretted ends, turned balusters and
swept mahogany rail toward the rear right; it extends into
hall flanked by wreathed rails; the curtail step is wreathed
to both sides.
Rear of front door is flat with large L hinges and door to the
front room has 4 raised-and-fielded panels. This room has
raised-and-fielded panelling to shutters and above and below
the dado rail of front wall; a simple ovolo cornice; a plain
square stone fire surround with beaded arrisses; a cupboard to
left of rear wall has 2 raised-and-fielded panels and H
hinges. A mid C19 elliptical arch to right has an ornamental
fanlight.
Room to rear left was remodelled in mid C19; it has a reeded
cornice, a large painted fire surround, probably slate, and a
wide 2/2-pane sash window with panelled shutters. Small lobby
to rear of stairs, now a kitchen, has a door with 3 panels to
base and coloured margin panes to top, which leads to the
garden.
Room to rear left of first floor, also mid C19, has a reeded
cornice, a white marble fire surround, an elliptical-arched
recess to front wall and a French window to balcony. The
staircase continues to second floor with a c1700 closed string
with heavier turned balusters, straight moulded handrail and
square newels; a dog-gate to second-floor landing has a
similar moulded top swept up to the sides, flat balusters
corresponding with profile of the turned ones and raised H
hinges.
The small attic landing to a narrower staircase has a double
row of balusters over the stair-well and full-height screen
doors, each with 3 raised-and-fielded panels to allow access
for furniture. The attic rooms are in the top of the A frame,
the tie-beams are exposed as steps between the 2 trusses; the
exposed pegged purlins are at staggered heights. 2 cast-iron
2-light casement windows on rear of front pitch look onto the
valley.
The basement is stone-flagged; kitchen to left has raftered,
unplastered ceiling; 3 open fireplaces, one to front stack 2
to rear stack, that to the far rear with an ornamented
surround, probably C19. A well just inside front door has the
word 'WELL' cut into a flagstone above it. Brick vaulted
ceilings are to the rear right, space to left in rear area and
to vault under the pavement, probably the coal-hole. Rear
window to basement is a cast-iron 3-light casement.
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: plain C19 railings attached to right of
door and Friarn Chapel to right (qv) protect a small basement
area; a gate to right leads to the area steps and basement
door. Garden-wall-bond walls flanking the garden extend approx
50m to Durleigh Brook.
A fine town house of this date, earlier than those in the
Castle Street development (qv).

Listing NGR: ST2986936866

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17553462

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

• 
  Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability
• 
  A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide
• 
  ENGLAND GUIDE TO POST WAR LISTED: A Guide to Post-war Listed Buildings
• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cornwall (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of Historic Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas