Details
SOUTH PETHERTON CP ST JAMES'S STREET (East side)
ST4317
6/158
Nos 48 and 50
(Court House)
19.4.61
GV II*
Detached house, later subdivided. C16 and C17, extended C18, with other modifications. Ham stone, mostly ashlar; Welsh
slate roofs with coped gables to north crosswing, otherwise plain gabled; stone chimney stacks. 'T'-plan with
additions; 2 storeys, 6 bay west elevation. Bay 1 is the medieval crosswing, projecting for 3 bays, and features an
angled 2-storey bay window, probably C18, with small-pane sash windows of 12+18+12 panes to both levels, with moulded
cills, cornice heads, pilaster strips, with stepped hipped stone roof over, and crowned with a pair of
barley-sugar-twist chimneys: return has two 3-light hollow-chamfer mullioned windows in chamfered recesses without
labels, rectangular-leaded, to first floor; and below, to bay 1 an early sash window of 32 panes with thick glazing
bars, having hood and all to match the bay window; bay 2 has a similar opening without hood, with later 12-pane sash
window, and between is a beaded surround doorway, now blocked. Bay 2 is a gabled projection with finial; below is a
blocked segmental-arched opening with segmental-relieving arch over, and above is a 3-light hollow-chamfer mullioned
window in wave-mould recess with label, rectangular-leaded; against the return a late C20 lean-to porch. The remaining
4 bays are a C18 wing, with plinth, moulded eaves course, and in centre of ridge a moulded cornice base and two
octagonal stone chimneys with moulded caps; to ground floor are 12-pane sash windows and above are tall 24-pane sashes,
all having recessed architraves and moulded cills; to right of bay 4 a plain boarded door in heavy frame. Extending
forwards from the south-west corner a single-storey building (no 46) not of special interest. Set well back from the
road a further extension northwards, of 2 storeys, one bay. Interior not seen, but the C18 wing is reported to have
original corner-fireplaces, moulded p1asterwork, and an apparently C18 staircase in the bay between the crosswing and
the south wing; the crosswing has C17 and C18 panelling, and dividing partitions of timber frames with daub filling on
horizontal rods, deep chamfered beams without steps, two 4-centre-arched doorways; roof trusses mostly renewed but one
smoke-blackened collar truss survives. This house probably served as the court house from 1540, but although the
arrangement of the upper room of the south wing suggests a first-floor courtroom with separate access on south side,
the courts appear to have been held in the Crown Inn, in the Square, by the C18. (VCH, Vol III, l974; VAG Report,
unpublished SR0, l976).
Listing NGR: ST4321217051
