Details
BRIXHAM
SX9155 MILTON STREET, Higher Brixham
1946-1/6/125 (North West side)
18/10/49 No.19
Friars Pardon, Black House, Black
Friars House incl. walls, gates &
piers
(Formerly Listed as:
MILTON STREET, Higher Brixham
(North West side)
Black Cottage, Friars Pardon, Black
House, Black Friars House and
Penrose)
GV II
Formerly known as: Black House, Penrose, Ingle Nook, Black
Cottage MILTON STREET Higher Brixham.
Large house. Probably C16/C17 or earlier, remodelled C17/C18
and again C18/C19. Minor additions to front in 1913. Solid
rendered walls. Slated roof, the left cross-wing hipped to
front and rear. 4 rendered chimneys with tapered caps; 1 on
right end wall (heightened in brick), 1 on right rear wall of
Black House, 1 on each of the rear wings.
Appears to be a 3-room-and-cross-passage plan with cross wing
projecting to left. Rear wing at each end of main range with a
third alongside the left wing, behind the cross passage. 2
storeys, with garret in parts. 4-window main range; 2 windows
in cross wing.
Black House, which occupies the 3 left-hand windows of main
range, has central doorway with large C18/C19 wooden porch
having slender fluted columns and flat hood, the latter
designed as an entablature with dentilled cornice. Rusticated
door surround of 1913; half-glazed door with 2 moulded panels
below and coloured leaded glass above. 3-light window above
and to left of upper storey; other 2 upper-storey windows
single-light; 6-paned sashes, those in side-lights 2-paned.
Friars Pardon, in right-hand end of main range has matching
3-light window in each storey; 4-panelled door to left.
Cross-wing (Black Friars House) has 2-light wood casements
with 8 panes per light. Half-glazed door to right; 2 moulded
panels below, coloured leaded glass above.
The whole front has been decorated with cement quoins and
window surrounds, apparently in 1913, since the dates
1457-1913 are moulded on a scroll above the middle
upper-storey window of the Black House. Coved eaves-cornice
over main range. C20 dormer with metal casements over Friars
Pardon. Another, with wood casements, over Black Friars House.
Left side wall has 3 windows with 6-paned sashes in upper
storey; C20 dormer with wood casments. Small-paned sashes in
rear wall; rainwater-head dated 1881.
INTERIOR inspected only at the Black House. Detail almost
entirely C18/C19 with some C17/C18, probably including the
roof structure. Wooden open-well stair, the first flight
balustraded on both sides, with the balustrades turning left
and right at the top. Thin, square moulded balusters, shaped
step-ends, both handrails voluted at the foot. In front of it
a segmental arch springing from moulded pilasters. 6-panelled
doors to rooms at either side on ground floor; these have
panelled shutters and moulded cornices with enriched ceiling
bands. First-floor half-landing and landing with moulded
cornices; segmental arch over stair-head. Five 6-panelled
doors.
All 3 first-floor front rooms have moulded cornices.
Right-hand room has C17/C18 wood chimneypiece with moulded
surround and cornice. Left-hand room has C19 moulded wood
chimneypiece with grey marble interior; iron basket-grate.
Left rear-wing room has grey marble chimneypiece with hob
grate; cupboards with plank and panelled doors, one with a
broken triangular pediment; moulded cornice. Short wing
adjoining it (now bathroom) has in rear wall a round-arched
recess with fluted pilasters and moulded archivolt; moulded
cornice. Roof-trusses of front range have arched collars
pegged to their faces; through-purlins. Old iron pump in back
yard.
Subsidiary features: To left of house is a rendered wall with
coping; at the left-hand end this curves inwards to a pair of
large round gate piers with ball finials; iron gates, marked
BLACK HOUSE TRADESMEN with arched braces and scrollwork. At
right-hand end is a smaller iron gate with ornamented finials
to the uprights; square piers with pyramidal caps and ball
finials.
The 1975 list description says this was 'originally the Town
Manor House'. Horsley says the 'buildings stand on a piece of
land that formerly belonged to the Duke of Suffolk, and was
sold off by the Crown between 1590 and 1610.'
(White W: Directory of Devonshire: 1850-: 427, 429; Horsley J
E: A Short History of Brixham: Exeter: 1988-: 12).
Listing NGR: SX9193555073
