The Butterwalk

Details

DARTMOUTH

SX874510 DUKE STREET 673-1/8/108 (North side) 14/09/49 No.6 The Butterwalk

GV I

One of a row of merchants' houses, now a shop and the Dartmouth Museum, with accommodation above. The row is dated 1635 and 1640, some later C17 improvements, various minor later alterations and a major renovation programme in the 1950s after severe bomb blast damage in 1943; David Nye and Partners of Westminster, London (architect), PW Wilkins and Sons Ltd. of Torquay (builders). Mixed construction; stone side and back walls, front is an ornate display of timber-framing with slate-hung upper floor, and the walk carried on granite piers; stone rubble stacks with C20 rendered brick chimneyshafts to front and rear of right party wall; slate roof. PLAN: Built end onto the street, the ground plan is one room wide and 2 rooms deep with side passage along the right (eastern) side. No fireplace to front ground-floor room, because this was a shop. Newel stair in alcove in right party wall rises in centre of first floor where there was a small unheated room between the front and back rooms. Now there is a corridor to the first floor of No.8 (qv). EXTERIOR: 3 storeys and attic; 3-window range. Ornate jettied timber-framed front forming part of a unified front comprising Nos 6-12 (even) (qv), the houses of the Dartmouth Butterwalk. The first floor oversails the Butterwalk and is supported on a carved bressummer on an arcade of granite piers with moulded capitals under blocks carved with geometric and heraldic motifs, one of them dated 1640. Recessed shop front is mid C20. First floor of exposed timber-framing. Central plastered section rebuilt and contains three C20 horned 12-pane sashes (another 3 on the second floor and one to each floor on right-hand return). Original small-panel framing each side, the faces of the original timbers carved with strapwork patterns and guilloche. End posts (on party walls) carved as pairs of Ionic pilasters on pedestals under carved brackets supporting the second-floor jetty, but at right end there is now a single pilaster and no bracket. Jetty has carved fascia. Slate-hung above. Original gable demolished but present timber eaves cornice, carved with a kind of bead-and-reel, is probably original frieze-board. Gabled rear elevation is plastered and is mostly original; painted masonry under slate-hung gable contains various C20 windows with glazing bars. The first-floor oriel is supported by reused C17 brackets carved as griffin-like creatures. INTERIOR: Exceptionally high quality and well-preserved. Original features include the newel stair which rises round a pine mast-like post, pine ovolo-moulded plank-and-muntin screens, small-field panelling, ornamental plaster ceilings of single and hollow rib designs, etc. The small closet on the first-floor landing with its grille of tiny turned posts may be secondary. Front parlour with overmantel featuring the arms of Charles II, who was entertained here in 1671. Rest of this room lined with original panelling except on the front where there is late C17/early C18 large-field panelling associated with the demolition of the original front oriel window and its replacement by the present 3-window arrangement. Rear parlour has introduced panelling. It also includes a curious small stone window in a curving alcove which appears to have served a second stair. Other C17 features are probably hidden. Upper floors and roof not inspected. HISTORY: This house forms a unit of the Dartmouth Butterwalk, which is one of the finest rows of merchants' houses dating from the first half of the C17 in England. The Butterwalk was built on reclaimed land as part of the same scheme which created the New Quay. The western half was leased to William Gurney in 1628, the eastern half was leased to Mark Hawkings. Both began to build, but in 1635 William Gurney sold his part to Hawkings who completed the row by 1640 at a cost of nearly »2500. The row originally continued one house further east; the Butterwalk arcade was of 13 granite piers and is now of 11. Backed onto river when originally built. (Freeman, Ray: Dartmouth and its Neighbours: Phillimore: 1990-: P.80-83; Devon Buildings: Laithwaite, Michael: Town Houses up to 1660: Devon Books: 1990-: P.113-5).

Listing NGR: SX8778851411

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

387230

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Freeman, R, Dartmouth and its Neighbours, (1990), 80-83
Laithwaite, M, Devon Buildings in Town Buildings Up To 1660, (1990), 113-5

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.