The Shambles

Details

DARTMOUTH

SX874510 HIGHER STREET 673-1/8/147 (East side) 14/09/49 No.1 The Shambles (Formerly Listed as: HIGHER STREET (East side) Nos.1 AND 3)

GV II

Merchant's house, now shops with house above. Medieval site. Early/mid C17; various C19 and C20 alterations, notably a major C19 refurbishment and major repairs c1955. Mixed construction; stone rubble party walls (rear part of Smith Street party wall rebuilt and rendered), timber-framed front and back crosswalls; stone rubble stacks and chimneyshafts to side walls; slate roof. PLAN: much altered, but originally 2 rooms deep with side passage to right and newel stair in alcove close to front of south party wall. EXTERIOR: 3 storeys with attic in roofspace and cellar, now used as a shop off Smith Street. Jettied shop front to Higher Street between thick side walls, the ends of which corbel out at each floor level. Rendered ground-floor level contains C20 timber shop window with glazing bars and, to right, a pair of doorways, both C20 panelled doors with plain overlights (left one to shop and right one to house). First and second floors have c1955 mullioned casement windows in C17 style, all containing diamond panes of leaded glass. First-floor oriel with 6 forward lights rebuilt on internal evidence for C17 size. Each side C17 framing of small scratch-moulded panels. Second floor has C17 crudely-finished slender close-studding (probably slate-hung originally) and 2 casements in positions of small C17 oriels. Roof at right angles to street and original front gable replaced by a hip in the C19. Mill Street elevation: Front section is blind and rendered stone rubble. Rear section is late C19 rendered brick, presumably built when Smith Street was widened. Cellar is here onto the street as it descends to Lower Street. It has C19 timber shop front - window with glazing bars and recessed doorway to left under fascia with shaped brackets each end. Central horned 4-pane sash to each floor, ground-floor one in centre of tripartite sash and narrow horned 2-pane sashes to ground and first floors. INTERIOR: well-preserved. There is little evidence for original partitions suggesting that they were non-structural partitions. Each floor has large axial joists resting on the top of a massive plain-chamfered crossbeam. Some apparently original joists are pine. Newel stair rising round mast-like pine post. Ground-floor fireplace is a C19 insertion but those on first and second floors are C17, relatively small, hooded on shaped timber corbels with moulded oak lintels. Posts each side of front windows are richly moulded with elaborate stops. Rear wall at ground- and first-floor levels is of similar framing to second-floor front and parts of a wide blocked ovolo-mullioned window shows on each floor. C17 moulded doorframe alongside ground-floor rear window contains contemporary panelled door on cockshead hinges. Another C17 panelled door to attic stair. Roof of C19 tie-beam trusses. The house before its renovation and the old house adjoining to north are shown on an old drawing by William Henley, reproduced by Freeman (see sources). (Freeman, Ray: Dartmouth and its Neighbours: Phillimore: 1990-: PL.28).

Listing NGR: SX8779351277

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

387267

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Freeman, R, Dartmouth and its Neighbours, (1990)

End of official list entry

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