Description

BARNSTAPLE

SS5533SE CASTLE STREET
684-1/7/88 (North East side)
31/12/73 No.26
Castle Chambers

GV II

House, now used as offices. Late C17, perhaps with an earlier
core and several phases of later alteration and improvement.
Rendered mass wall construction except rear elevation where
the first floor end wall and the stable are timber-framed,
stable framing quite substantial. Slate roofs, gabled at ends;
stacks with C19 or C20 brick shafts.
Late C17 town-house plan with 2 parallel blocks, end on to the
road, cartway to left, shared with No.25 (qv). The right-hand
(SE) block is 3 rooms deep, heated from right lateral stacks.
The left-hand block is one-and-a-half rooms deep with a rear
courtyard and stable block (now demolished) - this may
originally have been part of the domestic accommodation.
Substantial open-well stair behind front rooms, parlour to
first-floor front right. Position of original kitchen unclear
but may have been the right-hand centre room. Mass wall
between blocks suggests possibility of 2 earlier urban plots
re-used for larger house.
2 storeys. Asymmetrical 1:2-window range with a M roof, the
right hand block set back. C20 half-glazed door to left,
ground floor has 3 C20 paired 2-pane sash windows, first floor
has 2 C20 8 over one-pane sash windows. Overlooking the
courtyard the house has 2 late C17 wood mullioned first floor
windows, one ovolo-moulded externally, flat-faced internally,
originally 7 lights, all but 3 lights now blocked or missing,
but lintel survives. The other is a 3-light flat-faced
mullioned window, the mullions bead-moulded on the inside,
glazed with C20 square leaded panes.
INTERIOR: retains late C17 and later historic features. The
right-hand block has chamfered cross beams to the ground floor
and a good late C17 bolection-moulded chimneypiece to first
floor front right. Open-well staircase with heavy turned
balusters has been very repaired and possibly rebuilt in the
early C20 but retains some original balusters. One jamb of an
ovolo-moulded door frame survives on the ground floor; one C16
panelled door with moulded strips and HL hinges on the first
floor (probably not in situ).
Ground-floor front left room has been refurbished in the first
half of the C18 with a 2-panel door, fielded panel wall
cupboard and C18 timber chimneypiece. Other features may
survive behind later wall plaster. Roof has been heavily
repaired in the last 5 years (information from the owner) but
appears to late A-frame trusses with lap-jointed collars.
A good example of a late C17 town house with many features and
much of its original plan intact.

Listing NGR: SS5569033166

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26664895

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

• 
  Drawing up a Local Listed Building Consent Order: Historic England Advice Note 6
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990
• 
  Renovating Old Houses: Bringing New Life to Vintage Homes (For Pros By Pros)
• 
  Nottinghamshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and The Forest of Dean: Vale and Forest of Dean Pt. 2 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)