5, HIGHER STREET

Details

DARTMOUTH

SX874510 HIGHER STREET 673-1/8/148 (East side) 11/12/69 No.5 (Formerly Listed as: HIGHER STREET No.5 Tudor House)

GV II*

Merchant's house with shop. Medieval site. Main house of c1635 but parts of rear may be earlier; major repair programme c1960. Mixed construction; timber-framed front with stone rubble rear and side walls; stone stacks to front side walls with c1960 brick chimneyshafts; slate roof. PLAN: Built end onto the street, house is 3 rooms deep divided by stone crosswalls. Newel stair in an alcove in the north side wall in the narrow centre section behind a side passage through the front part. EXTERIOR: Front is 3 storeys with attics in the roofspace, middle section is 2 storeys and rear part is single storey. Well-preserved one-bay ornamental front, jettied with ends of the side walls corbelled out at each floor and gabled roof. Ground floor is a C20 shop front, probably a repair of the C19 one. Uneven bays with side passage door recessed at left end, 2 steps to C20 plank door and plain overlight. Shop doorway recessed right of centre, C20 glazed door with overlight. Shop windows with glazing bars and brick ventilators below. C17 moulded small-panel framing to first and second floors. Windows are mostly original, mullioned, reglazed with iron casements and containing diamond panes of leaded glass (reusing a good number of old panes). First floor has continuous range of windows with splendid wide central oriel, 5:5 front lights with king mullion, corner posts and second-floor fascia board richly carved. Oriel on 5 brackets carved mostly as fabulous beasts. 2 second-floor oriels are smaller versions with 4 forward lights and share a slated lean-to roof. Attic storey not jettied and it is slate-hung containing a central 3-light casement. Gabled roof, with old probably-original carved bargeboards, projects forward and is supported on carved oak brackets resting against the party walls. Roof steps down to the middle room and again to the rear section which includes various C19 and C20 windows. INTERIOR: Front part is wholly C17 and very well-preserved. Ground floor spanned by plain-chamfered crossbeam. Side passage lined by moulded plank-and-muntin screen but original doorcase contains late C20 door. C20 stair to first floor. Front principal parlour has plastered crossbeam with C20 partition below. Original ornamental plaster ceiling, single rib pattern enriched with large angle sprays and cherub heads. Fireplace has oak lintel, moulded with low Tudor arch (2 smaller versions on second floor). Newel stair to second floor rising round mast-like post. 2 second-floor front chambers divided by axial scratch-moulded plank-and-muntin screen and each with fireplace. 3-bay roof of A-frame trusses with pegged dovetail-shaped lap-jointed collars and butt purlins. Stair to attic within the front block. Apart from the newel stair and a C19 door with C17 carved frieze reset against a wall, nothing of antiquity shows in the rear parts although the walls are very thick. Roofs here are inaccessible and ceilings are plastered. An exceptionally well-preserved high-quality merchant's house. (Transactions of the Devonshire Association: O'Neil RH StJ: The Old House Known as Number Five, Higher Street, Dartmouth: 1951-: P.267-271).

Listing NGR: SX8779451270

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

387268

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Transactions of the Devonshire Association in Transactions of the Devonshire Association, (1951), 267-271

End of official list entry

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