Summary
Formerly an industrial building, circa 1850s, understood to have been built as a glove workshop. Now (2014), part of the Greenway’s Almshouses.
Reasons for Designation
Nos. 1-3 Greenways Almshouses, John Greenway Close, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Architectural interest: this modest mid-C19 industrial building shows architectural attention through its use of local stone that contrasts with the red-brick detailing;
* Historic interest: a C19 workshops that survives in the centre of Tiverton and contributes to our understanding of the development of the important glove and textile industry;
* Legibility: despite the domestic conversion, externally it is still recognisable as former industrial building;
* Group value: it has group value with the C16 and C19 purpose built almshouse ranges (both Grade II).
History
A mid-C19 industrial building. A structure on the same alignment, but with a slightly different footprint, appears on the 1842 Tithe Map for the District of All Fours in Tiverton. It is understood to have originally been a glove workshop. It had three rooms on the ground floor, the right two of which were heated. It became part of the Greenway’s Almshouse Trust in the late C20 and converted into three dwellings. It is likely that this coincided with the renewal of the first-floor weatherboarding, the insertion of new window frames and doors and the creation of a new opening in the south end.
Details
Formerly an industrial building, circa 1850s, understood to have been built as a glove workshop. Now (2014), part of the Greenway’s Almshouses.
MATERIALS: local stone rubble with brick dressings, weather boarding to the upper storey and a slate roof with a brick stack over the east end.
PLAN: a narrow rectangular building on a north-to-south axis.
EXTERIOR: it is a two-storey gable-ended building. The north gable end is blind save for a small glazed first-floor opening. The west elevation is ten bays. These include two doors (one a plank, the other a modern glazed door), seven windows to the ground floor and five to the first floor. The east elevation has six bays, with two modern partially glazed doors, four windows to the ground floor (three of which have 16 panes) and five windows to the first. The south gable end has a double leaf modern glazed door and a window above. The ground-floor openings have segmental brick arches and all of the casement windows are modern replacement timber frames, as are the first-floor six-pane sashes.
INTERIOR: a partial inspection of the building was undertaken (2014). It has been converted into three separate dwellings and this is likely to have altered the original plan. Some internal features recorded in 1972 may survive, including brick segmental-head fireplaces, and slender ceiling joists with scissor bracing in the central ground-floor room. The roof is a tie-beam construction.
