The Butterwalk

Details

DARTMOUTH

SX874510 DUKE STREET 673-1/8/110 (North side) 14/09/49 No.10 The Butterwalk

GV I

One of a row of merchants' houses, now a shop and cafeteria with accommodation above. The row is dated 1635 and 1640 (this house includes the date 1635 and the initials of Mark Hawkings), 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; side and back walls of stone rubble, front is an ornate display of timber-framing with plastered upper floor, and the walk carried on granite piers; front and back stone rubble stacks with C20 rendered brick chimneyshafts in left party wall shared with No.12 (qv); slate roof. PLAN: Built end onto the street, the ground plan is one room wide and 2 rooms deep with remains of a side passage along right (east) side. C19 winder stair rises just back from the front door; second floor shows position of original newel stair further back, it would have been onto a first-floor landing halfway through the first-floor level where there is a small unlit and unheated room between the front and back rooms. A blocked doorway in the right party wall suggests that the upper floors of No.8 (qv) were originally part of this house. EXTERIOR: 3 storeys and attic; one-window first-floor and 2-window second-floor 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 1635. Recessed shop front is mid C20 but the doorway to right is original, large frame with multiple mouldings and ornate carved stops, and contains contemporary panelled door on wrought-iron strap hinges. First floor of exposed timber-framing with central original oriel window, 8 forward lights with moulded mullions and sill, carved corner posts, and supporting brackets carved as animals, internal turned centre-post with carved capital, iron casements and rectangular panes of leaded glass. Largely-original moulded small-panel framing each side, the faces of the original timbers carved with strapwork patterns and guilloche. End posts (on party walls) are carved as pairs of Ionic pilasters on pedestals under carved brackets supporting the second-floor jetty, one as Samson and the Lion. Upper jetty has carved fascia including the initials of Mark Hawkings. Plastered above. Second floor has 2 oriels, smaller versions of the first-floor one, projecting from a continuous row of mullioned windows (now blocked). Attic contains a pair of C20 twelve-pane sashes under a projecting gable supported on a pair of large carved timber brackets carved as emblems of plenty. Rear elevation is painted stone rubble to slate-hung gable and contains mid C20 twelve-pane sash windows with glazing bars. Rear left return wall is a plastered timber-frame and contains some original C17 oak mullioned windows. INTERIOR: Exceptionally high quality and well-preserved. Original features include a section of the pine passage screen, panelled partitions on first floor (some possibly late C17), and the first-floor front parlour - panelling with carved frieze including the date 1634 flanked by pegasi; granite fireplace with carved lintel, imported Dutch brick cheeks and back, good plasterwork overmantel featuring the Pentecost; ornamental plaster ceiling, a single rib design with bosses and angle sprays (hollow rib pattern ceiling with cherubs to the middle room). Original newel stair survives from second floor to the attic rooms. Plain carpentry exposed on the upper floors. Other C17 features are probably hidden. 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. If the initials are anything to go by, he converted this house for his own use. 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: SX8777551407

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

387232

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

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