Details
BIDEFORD
SS4526 BRIDGELAND STREET
842-1/5/44 (South side)
08/11/49 Nos.28 AND 28A
including pump and milestone in
courtyard
GV II*
Large house, the left-hand side, rear range and front garret
now in use as flats and offices. Dated 1692 and 1693; some
late C19 rebuilding at rear, with date 1891.
Dull-red brick tinged with yellowish brown, laid in Flemish
bond; plinths of squared stone rubble at rear, the front
plinth rendered. Slate roofs; those on right side of courtyard
and at rear of front range are mansards (probably late C19).
Rear range and added corridor behind front range have flat
roofs. Old red-brick chimney on each end-wall of front range.
Chimneys at rear all seem to be late C19 red brick, including
2 at rear of front range which heated the middle rooms.
Plan: built around 4 sides of a courtyard; corridor added
behind front range in early or mid C18. Front range is 1 room
deep with 4 ground-storey rooms and a central through-passage.
Side entrance-passage (possibly original) at left-hand end.
Range to right of courtyard has original staircase at the
front with former kitchen behind; present kitchen (perhaps the
former pantry) to rear of it. Range to left (now offices)
believed to have contained stores and workshop originally.
Rear range, converted to flat, believed to have been the
dairy.
2 storeys with garret, except for left range (2 storeys only)
and rear range (single-storeyed). Front of 8-window range.
Windows segmental-headed in ground storey, flat-headed above;
all (except for that above the front door) have 6-paned sashes
in flush frames. Raised band above ground storey. Prominent
modillioned eaves cornice.
Front door (in 4th bay from left) remodelled in early C19 and
a flat-fronted bow window built out above it: 3-panelled
double-doors with cobweb fanlight over; panelled reveals;
wooden Doric flanking columns supporting entablature.
At some earlier date a raised band has been cut away and the
butt-end of a timber is visible on the right-hand side. Bow
window is of 3 lights with mullions designed as half-round
reeded pilasters supporting an entablature; lights have sashes
8-paned in the centre, 6-paned at the sides. 8-panelled door
(to No 28A) at left-hand end of frontage. Flanking the 3
middle windows is a pair of original lead rainwater pipes. The
heads have shields each carrying a castle and surmounted by a
knight's helmet on which is a 4-legged creature. Flanking the
shields are floral pendants and lions, these in turn flanked
(to the left) by sprays of foliage or (to the right) by more
lions. At the base of each rainwater-head is a winged
cherub-head flanked by pendants; below the left-hand cherub is
a cartouche with date 1692 flanked by lions. Both pipes have
decorated clamps: 1 to left with initials IHE and 2 winged
cherub-heads, 2 to right, the upper with cartouches, date 1693
and initials IHE, the lower with 2 lions.
4 dormer windows; 2 in centre of 2 lights with prominent
triangular gables, 2 on the outsides of 4 lights with top
cornice developing into a segmental pediment over the 2 centre
lights. All the lights have 6-paned wood casements.
Courtyard at rear retains much original detail, despite late
C19 alterations; brickwork has not been painted or rendered.
Front of right-hand range largely original with raised band
above ground storey; openings in ground storey
segmental-headed, those above flat-headed.
2 ground-storey windows with a third inserted between them,
all with 2-light mullioned-and-transomed wood casements.
Similar group of windows above in second storey; outer windows
have 6-paned sashes. To left of this is a further window with
2-light mullioned-and-transomed wood frame, the 2 lower lights
converted to 4-paned sashes. Wooden eaves cornice and dormer
window, the latter matching those at the front; probably late
C19 replicas.
Left-hand range is original in the ground storey but rebuilt
in late C19 red brick above the raised band: 3 ground-storey
windows with 3-light wood casements (probably late C19 or
C20); that to left with rebuilt jambs and lintel, the others
with original segmental arches. The right-hand window has been
converted from a doorway. Upper storey has 3 windows with
3-light wood casements; tops cut through the moulded
eaves-cornice and are finished with triangular pediments.
Front range (the added corridor) is of old red brick in ground
storey, late C19 brick above, including raised band. Centre
doorway is late C19 with double-doors, cobweb fanlight and
triangular pediment. Above it a Sun fire-insurance plaque
without the number. At either side a segmental-headed window
with 3-light mullioned wood frame; original mullions in
left-hand (west) window. Each window extended by one light on
the outside. Upper-storey windows have late C19 coloured
glass. Shaped parapet with 3 cement urns. 2 rainwater heads
dated 1891. Wall of rear range original, including
segmental-headed windows and raised band. Late C19 shaped
red-brick parapet with 3 cement urns.
Courtyard has old cobble surface with date 1693 in white
pebbles. In centre an iron pump, believed to be late C19 Evans
type. Against wall of right-hand range a red sandstone
milestone with rounded top; inscribed in C18 or early C19
letters 7 MILES TO NEW YORK FERRY, and with the number 17 in
bottom left-hand corner.
INTERIOR: through-passage has 6-panelled door at either side,
that to left recessed within a round arch; blank panel above
door-head with plain archivolt, panelled imposts and keyblock.
At rear, in added corridor, 2 doors with 2 bolection-moulded
panels; above right-hand door the top of a 2-light
wood-mullioned window.
Stair compartment has in ground storey 3 similar doors with a
fourth leading to the cupboard under the stairs; door to room
adjoining through-passage has been heightened by a third
panel. Stair is a wooden dog-leg rising to the garret;
heavily-moulded closed strings, square newels with flat
moulded caps, turned balusters and flat handrail.
On stair landing is an oil painting with bolection-moulded
frame, removed from chimneybreast in garret; coastal scene
with forts and classical temple. Adjoining window has late C19
coloured glass. Ground-storey room to right of through-passage
has detail probably of mid C18: plain dado with moulded rail
and base, box-cornice, panelled shutters; wooden chimneypiece
with panelled pilasters supporting entablature, the frieze
with middle panel.
Rooms adjoining and across passage have panelled shutters and
C19 chimneypieces; latter room has Georgian-style panelling,
probably of late C19.
Former kitchen has large original dresser, fixed to the wall
and rising to the ceiling; lower part has bolection-moulded
doors with H-hinges. Room above has original wooden
bolection-moulded chimneypiece; ceiling has box-cornice and
coffering, the latter possibly a late C19 addition.
Second-storey stair landing has C19 six-panelled doors; C19
chimneypiece in right-hand front room. Owner says many of the
fireplaces (including those in garret) have C19 cast-iron
grates, now boarded in.
Flats and offices not inspected, except that No 28A has late
C19 or early C20 entrance-hall with coloured floor-tiles,
half-glazed inner door with margin-panes, and wooden staircase
with carved balusters and newels.
Garden walls mostly of undatable stone rubble, but that to
left, in the section adjoining the house, is of original red
and yellow brick.
The site was leased to Jonathan Hooper of Bideford, merchant,
on 20.8.1692 by the Feoffees of Bideford Long Bridge; he was
to 'erect and build a good and sufficient dwellinghouse'. The
initials on the rainwater pipes are presumably those of
Jonathan and his wife Elizabeth. This is externally the
best-preserved of the original houses in Bridgeland Street,
itself a rare and remarkable piece of late C17 urban
development. The courtyard plan is a surprisingly late example
of its type.
(Bideford Bridge Trust Surveys: A1/17; Goaman M: Olde Bideford
and District (photo of milestone): 1978-: P.6; Bideford
Community Archive: Candler S Dr.: Plan).
Listing NGR: SS4541826785
