No 15 and Attached Front Railings and Rear Garden Walls

Details

BRIDGWATER

ST2936NE FRIARN STREET 736-1/11/79 (South side) 24/03/50 No.15 and attached front railings and rear garden walls

GV II*

House. c1700. Flemish bond brick with red headers and yellow stretchers, steep double-pitched pantile roof, stone coping to parapet and gables, brick stacks to left gable ends and 3 wide Delabole slate steps to door. Double-depth plan. 3 storeys with semi-basement; 4-window range. Segmental arches of alternate red and yellow bricks over window recesses; all the windows, in diminishing heights, are 6/6-pane sashes in forward frames. Platbands between floors. A fine shell hood on fretted brackets is over a moulded architrave; the right-of-centre door has 8 raised-and-fielded panels, small panels to centre and top below a blind fanlight. The basement window to left is blocked, those flanking the door have thick glazing bars. The steep pitch of the roof, the irregular bond to parapet wall and the style of shell hood suggest a former eaves cornice. The 2 lower storeys of rear were altered mid C19; a 2-storey verandah has a pantile roof with cast-iron trellis to supports on first floor and plain poles to ground floor. The ground below is paved with cream ceramic tiles with small black tiles at the corners; flagstones to right of the area steps, now covered over. INTERIOR: the stair-hall to right has a mid C19 open-well open-string staircase with fretted ends, turned balusters and swept mahogany rail toward the rear right; it extends into hall flanked by wreathed rails; the curtail step is wreathed to both sides. Rear of front door is flat with large L hinges and door to the front room has 4 raised-and-fielded panels. This room has raised-and-fielded panelling to shutters and above and below the dado rail of front wall; a simple ovolo cornice; a plain square stone fire surround with beaded arrisses; a cupboard to left of rear wall has 2 raised-and-fielded panels and H hinges. A mid C19 elliptical arch to right has an ornamental fanlight. Room to rear left was remodelled in mid C19; it has a reeded cornice, a large painted fire surround, probably slate, and a wide 2/2-pane sash window with panelled shutters. Small lobby to rear of stairs, now a kitchen, has a door with 3 panels to base and coloured margin panes to top, which leads to the garden. Room to rear left of first floor, also mid C19, has a reeded cornice, a white marble fire surround, an elliptical-arched recess to front wall and a French window to balcony. The staircase continues to second floor with a c1700 closed string with heavier turned balusters, straight moulded handrail and square newels; a dog-gate to second-floor landing has a similar moulded top swept up to the sides, flat balusters corresponding with profile of the turned ones and raised H hinges. The small attic landing to a narrower staircase has a double row of balusters over the stair-well and full-height screen doors, each with 3 raised-and-fielded panels to allow access for furniture. The attic rooms are in the top of the A frame, the tie-beams are exposed as steps between the 2 trusses; the exposed pegged purlins are at staggered heights. 2 cast-iron 2-light casement windows on rear of front pitch look onto the valley. The basement is stone-flagged; kitchen to left has raftered, unplastered ceiling; 3 open fireplaces, one to front stack 2 to rear stack, that to the far rear with an ornamented surround, probably C19. A well just inside front door has the word 'WELL' cut into a flagstone above it. Brick vaulted ceilings are to the rear right, space to left in rear area and to vault under the pavement, probably the coal-hole. Rear window to basement is a cast-iron 3-light casement. SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: plain C19 railings attached to right of door and Friarn Chapel to right (qv) protect a small basement area; a gate to right leads to the area steps and basement door. Garden-wall-bond walls flanking the garden extend approx 50m to Durleigh Brook. A fine town house of this date, earlier than those in the Castle Street development (qv).

Listing NGR: ST2986936866

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

373895

Legacy System:

LBS

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