Agincourt House

Details

DARTMOUTH

SX874510 LOWER STREET 673-1/8/161 (West side) 14/09/49 No.27 Agincourt House

GV II

Merchant's house, now shops with workshop and flats above. Medieval origins; parts of the stone walls possibly C14, rebuilt probably in the mid C17; some C18 and C19 alterations, restored c1930-40, modernised again in 1990. Mixed construction; limestone rubble side and back walls, timber-framed front and crosswalls, some of it exposed, some plastered and some slate-hung; stone rubble stacks with rendered C19 brick chimneyshafts and old pots; slate roofs. PLAN: C17 layout has front and back blocks with courtyard between and connected on the right (north) side by galleries at first- and second-floor levels. Original front-block stack in left sidewall, and rear-block stack in the rear wall. Courtyard, front and rear blocks now divided into small shops on ground floor. EXTERIOR: 3 storeys and attics; 2-window first-floor range. Stone side walls corbelled out to carry deep first-floor jetty. C20 timber shop front below has shop windows with glazing bars each side of central passage entrance. Projecting joists carrying the jettied first floor oversail a crossbeam (inserted in the C20), the front of which is carved with a repeating pattern in C17 style; it is supported on a couple of large timber posts. First-floor level has exposed timber-framing. Only the outermost timbers are C17 - ogee-moulded with small panels and including end styles from C17 windows. Rest is made up from old timbers and contains C20 mullion-and-transom windows with diamond panes of leaded glass. Similar style and date to second-floor C17-style oriel windows; front is slate-hung at this level. Roof parallel to the street and contains C20 front flat-roofed dormer window. The building projects further into the street than its neighbours and contains C20 windows with leaded glass; single-light window first-floor left has a frame apparently made up from reused carved timbers and both sides have a 2-light window with trefoil heads to the second floor. INTERIOR: Most floors have joists of large scantling, mostly C17 but some, like those to first-floor front which are ovolo-moulded, possibly reused or repositioned. C19 replacements are easily recognised, eg. to rear block attic. Ground-floor level is the most heavily restored and, apart from the joists, original and introduced timbers cannot be easily distinguished. All ground-floor fireplaces are probably C19. Upper floors have good C17 hooded fireplaces with shaped oak brackets to chamfered or ovolo-moulded and scroll-stopped oak lintels. A second fireplace, second-floor front, is from the second half of the C17, of Dutch brick with curving back corners and plain oak lintel. Front-block roof is a C19 replacement but rear-block roof is C17, of 3 bays carried on A-frame trusses with pegged lap-jointed collars and threaded purlins. Other features are hidden, particularly the construction of the galleries. HISTORY: Agincourt House is a rare and relatively well-preserved survival of the C17 gallery-and-back-block type of town house. It is the only house left on the west side of Lower Street on the medieval frontage. Road widening has removed the rest. (The Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Devon: London: P.328).

Listing NGR: SX8781351074

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

387282

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, Cherry, B, The Buildings of England: Devon, (1989), 328

End of official list entry

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