12, THE QUAY

Details

DARTMOUTH

SX874510 THE QUAY 673-1/8/260 (West side) 14/09/49 No.12 (Formerly Listed as: THE QUAY Nos.12 AND 13)

GV II*

Merchant's house, now a grocery shop with flats above. Probably 1639 on land leased to Edward Spurway, with later C17, C19 and C20 modernisations. Mixed construction; thick party walls of local stone rubble, front and back walls of plastered timber-framing; stone rubble stack in right party wall with C19 brick chimneyshaft; slate roof. PLAN: Probably built as left-hand house of a pair with adjoining No.13 The Quay (qv). Built end onto The Quay. Probably one-room plan with stack in right party wall shared with No.13. No early stair and it seems that, by the late C17, access to the first floor was from the adjoining properties. By the late C19 the ground floor had been cleared of any partitions and was converted to a grocery shop which survives little altered. EXTERIOR: 3 storeys with attics; 2-window range. Superficially it is late C19, but C17 structure indicated by jettied upper floors. Ends of the stone party walls corbel out to carry the jetties. They are plastered but, in the right wall, a hoodmould just below the corbelling for the second-floor jetty indicates the survival of a date plaque. Ground floor has very good late C19 timber shop front with polished marble plinth, plate-glass windows divided by slender turned mahogany standards and with segmental-arch heads containing ventilators in the spandrels, curving windows to central recessed doorway containing a good bottom-panelled glazed door under overlight, fascia with original gilded lettering (it is still the same company) behind glass, large brackets each end to the blind which is still used. Late C19 and C20 windows above. 2 canted bays on the first floor contain casements without glazing bars, but boxed posts each end may derive from earlier windows. 2 horned 4-pane sashes to the second floor and C20 tripartite sash without glazing bars above. Bottom corner of the second-floor bressummer carved with an unusual version of bead-and-reel, very early for 1639. Probably contemporary moulded beam to attic floor. Plain tall gable. INTERIOR: All carpentry hidden behind C19 and C20 plaster and fireplaces blocked but the C17 house is probably well-preserved. First floor has original ornamental plasterwork overmantel featuring a coat of arms, pegasi, cherub heads, stars and a spray. Corridor behind apparently connecting late C17 doorways in the party walls both sides. Second floor not available for inspection. Attic shows bottom of principals of an original 3-bay roof. Ground-floor shop is still largely late C19 with boarded walls and ceilings and still uses some contemporary shelves, drawers etc. HISTORY: This is one of a group of merchants' houses built on reclaimed land in a Town Corporation-backed scheme to reclaim land for housing and expand the port facilities with the New Quay. This began in 1585, and by the second phase, in the 1630s, this was the most fashionable part of the town, and the surviving C17 houses here are amongst the best merchants' houses of their period in Devon.

Listing NGR: SX8779051383

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

387369

Legacy System:

LBS

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