The Butterwalk

Details

DARTMOUTH

SX874510 DUKE STREET 673-1/8/111 (North side) 14/09/49 No.12 The Butterwalk

GV I

One of a row of merchants' houses, now a shop with accommodation above. The row is dated 1635 and 1640, 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; stone rubble stacks with C20 rendered brick chimneyshafts to right party wall; slate roof. PLAN: Smaller than its neighbour, No.10 (qv), it was originally built backing onto the river. Ground floor recessed behind the Butterwalk. Built end onto the street, the ground plan is one room wide and 2 rooms deep with originally a side passage along right (east) side. A newel stair rises just back from the front door 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. EXTERIOR: 3 storeys with attics; one-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. Recessed shop front is mid C20 with contemporary door to passage to right. First floor of exposed timber-framing. Centre rebuilt and contains 7-light mullioned window containing iron casements and rectangular panes of leaded glass (a 5-light version on the second floor). Largely-original moulded small-panel framing each side, the faces of the original timbers carved with strapwork patterns and guilloche. End posts are carved as Ionic pilasters on pedestals underneath carved brackets to second-floor jetties, paired pilasters on right party wall. Upper jetty has carved timber fascia boards. Plastered second floor. Original front gable demolished and C18 timber modillion eaves cornice to hipped roof. Rear elevation is painted stone rubble to slate-hung gable and contains mid C20 windows with glazing bars. INTERIOR: Exceptionally high quality and well-preserved. Original features include newel stair rising round pine mast-like newel post, panelled partitions on first floor (middle room partition with carved frieze), and the first-floor front parlour - panelled crosswall, granite fireplace with carved lintel and imported Dutch brick cheeks and back; ornamental plaster ceiling, a tour de force by a Dart Valley plastering `firm' representing the Jesse Tree (this was restored from the pieces of the original ceiling which had completely collapsed as a result of the 1943 bomb blast - Percy Russell includes a photograph of the ceiling before its restoration complete with the 2 figures which are now missing). Other C17 features are probably hidden on the ground and first floors and others probably survive on the upper floors. 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 anywhere 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. (Freeman, Ray: Dartmouth and its Neighbours: Phillimore: 1990-: P.80-83; Russell, Percy: Dartmouth: 1982-: PL.23; Devon Buildings: Laithwaite, Michael: Town Houses up to 1660: Devon Books: 1990-: P.113-5; Devon Buildings: Thorp, John: Wall Painting and Lime-plaster Decoration: Devon Books: 1990-: P.136).

Listing NGR: SX8776951406

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

387233

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Russell, P, Dartmouth, (1982)
Freeman, R, Dartmouth and its Neighbours, (1990), 80-83
Thorp, J, Devon Buildings in Wall Painting and Lime Plaster Decoration, (1990), 136
Laithwaite, M, Devon Buildings in Town Buildings Up To 1660, (1990), 113-5

End of official list entry

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