Delapre House and Delapre Villa, Including Stable Yard, Coach Houses (Part of Delapre Villa and Courtyard Cottage Respectively) , Garden Walls and Gate Piers

Details

BRIDPORT

777/5/370 ST ANDREW'S ROAD BRIDPORT (West side) DELAPRE HOUSE AND DELAPRE VILLA, INCLU DING STABLE YARD, COACH HOUSES (PART O F DELAPRE VILLA AND COURTYARD COTTAGE RESPECTIVELY), GARDEN WALLS AND GATE P IERS (Formerly listed as: SAINT ANDREW'S ROAD BRIDPORT DELAPRE HOUSE INCLUDING STABLE YARD, G ARDEN WALLS AND OUTHOUSES)

19-SEP-1975 GV II Former officers' quarters and mess for Bridport Barracks, now two dwellings. Constructed between 1803 and 1805, probably to the designs of James Johnson and John Sanders of the Barracks Office.

MATERIALS: It is of stucco with stucco dressings under shallow, hipped slate roofs with rendered stacks.

PLAN: It is a squat, L-shape in plan with a main range and a slightly narrower, adjoining wing and single-storey range to the rear. In the late C20 the building was divided into two dwellings called Delapre House and Delapre Villa. To the north-east of the house is a late-C20 dwelling called Delapre Lodge, beyond which is a small building of C19 date that has been converted to a dwelling known as The Old Stables. Neither building is of special interest.

EXTERIOR: The building is of two storeys and is in a classical style with a modillion eaves cornice and a blocking course. The symmetrical entrance (south-west) front has a central doorway with part-glazed doors with moulded panels and an oblong fanlight, and a Tuscan porch that is supported on two wooden columns. The entrance is flanked by sash windows with marginal glazing bars set in moulded surrounds. Above the doorway is a casement window and there is a sash window to either side, all have moulded surrounds. The south-east elevation has three ranges of casements in moulded surrounds to the first floor and French doors to the lower floor.

INTERIOR: not inspected (2010)

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: The stable yard to the rear (north-east) is surrounded by coped red brick walls, and has two small, symmetrically-placed red brick coach houses with pitched slate roofs and coped gable ends. The left-hand (south-west) coach house now forms part of Delapre villa; the opposing former coach house is a separate dwelling (Courtyard cottage). At the entrance to the yard are gate piers with stone finials. The grounds are enclosed by walls of red brick, and these are elaborately ramped along the north side, and returned on road (south-west) side in a double curve to form an entrance.

HISTORY: At the end of the C18 and during the first decade of the C19, in response to Napoleon's threat of invasion, an extensive network of barracks was established around the English coast. In 1794 the newly-formed Barracks Department purchased land in St Andrew's Road in Bridport for the construction of a barracks. A large house (Delapre House) was built on the site, probably between 1803 and 1805, as the officers' quarters and mess. A Hanoverian cavalry company was stationed at the barracks until 1816 when the house was sold by the Commissioners of Barracks to a local businessman and it was re-named Delapre House.

SOURCES: West Dorset District Council, Bridport Conservation Area Appraisal (2004) John R. Breihan, Barracks in Dorset during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars (1989), Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society Proceedings, Vol. III, pp. 9-13 Sales Particulars, The Delapre Estate, Bridport, Dorset (1935)

REASON FOR DESIGNATION: Delapre House and Delapre Villa, including stable yard, coach houses, (part of Delapre Villa and Courtyard and Courtyard Cottage respectively), garden walls and gate piers, is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons: * Architectural Interest: a substantial classically-styled villa that was probably constructed between 1803 and 1805 * Intactness: despite its sub-division into two dwellings, the historic footprint and fabric of this early-C19 building survive * Historic interest: as the former Officers' quarters and mess for Bridport Barracks, it provides evidence for the impact that Napoleon's threat of invasion had on parts of the south coast * Grouping: the house forms a cogent group with the associated former stable yard, coach houses, boundary walls and gate piers

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

401848

Legacy System:

LBS

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