The Boathouse

Details

BARNSTAPLE

SS5533 BRUNSWICK WHARF
684-1/6/77 (South side)
31/08/88 The Boathouse

II

Warehouse, now disused. Early C19. Slatestone rubble with
dressings of squared stone, much of it limestone, yellow and
red brick. Slated roof with blue glazed ridge-tiles. Oblong
plan with one room on each floor.
2 storeys. 4-window ranges to north and south; 1-window gable
wall to west. Upper storey of east gable wall has tall,
round-headed doorway with well-cut stone jambs; yellow brick
arch with keystone, springing from plain imposts. Double doors
(probably original) consisting of diagonally-set planks with
beaded edges. Lower doors, rising to impost level, are hinged
at the sides, but a 2nd pair in the head of the arch are
hinged from a central post. A later wicket door has been cut
into the right-hand lower door. Fixed to right-hand jamb is
part of an old iron hoist.
On left side the doorway is approached by a flight of steps.
Lowest 4 steps are of solid brick, but the next 4 are
cantilevered stone blocks. These have been underpinned in
concrete block and a platform and double doors to ground
storey added in C20. Behind is the original ground-storey
entrance with well-cut stone jambs, rebated for doors of which
the iron hinges survive.
South front has in ground storey 5 low, blocked openings with
curved almost pointed arches of red brick. A 6th opening at
west end has been cut into by a C20 door. Upper storey has 4
windows below the eaves, 3 of them blocked. The 2nd from the
east is boarded, having behind it a rough window-frame
fronting an old iron grille. Between and flanking the windows
are 15 slate-framed pigeon-holes, 2 of them having the
original slate perches. At the right-hand end is a doorway,
now blocked, with a segmental red brick arch.
The north front, which stands immediately on the edge of the
quay, has windows with segmental red brick arches, 2 in the
centre of the ground storey and 4 above; the 2nd upper-storey
window from the east has a wooden louvre with an old iron
grille behind it. Flanking the ground-storey windows are 2
wide doorways with segmental red brick arches; the eastern
doorway is blocked, while the western one has an old plank
door. Both doorways originally extended down to a lower quay
surface. Quay wall below is supported by 3 large, raking stone
buttresses. West gable-wall has a window with segmental red
brick arch in upper storey and another in the gable;
upper-storey window has an old iron grille. Against the north
side of the ground storey is the shadow of a later stone
building now demolished; it is shown in old photographs and in
a mid C19 painting.
INTERIOR: 1988 list description mentions plain, heavy
upper-floor beams. 4 roof trusses with tie-beams, collar-beams
and vertical struts from tie to principal. All timbers
appeared to be nailed rather than pegged; the struts were
bolted from below. A building is shown in this position,
complete with extension to west, on John Wood's plan of 1843.
Brunswick Wharf was built by the Gould family on a town lease
about 1829 and held by them throughout C19.
(Gardiner WF: Barnstaple, 1837-97: Barnstaple: 1897-: 22, 37,
87-8; Baxter J & Baxter J: Barnstaple Yesterday: Bristol:
1980-: 30).




Listing NGR: SS5563633506

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

485536

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Baxter, J, J, , Barnstaple Yesterday, (1980), 30
Gardiner, W F, Barnstaple 1837-1897, (1897), 22, 37, 87

End of official list entry

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