Nos 28 and 28A Including Pump and Milestone in Courtyard

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

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

375756

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Goaman, M, Olde Bideford and District, (1978)

Other
Bideford Bridge Trust, Survey,

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