Bridge Chambers Including Garden Railings Adjoining the River Front
BRIDGE CHAMBERS INCLUDING GARDEN RAILINGS ADJOINING THE RIVER FRONT, THE STRAND
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1385366
- Date first listed:
- 31-Aug-1988
- List Entry Name:
- Bridge Chambers Including Garden Railings Adjoining the River Front
- Statutory Address:
- BRIDGE CHAMBERS INCLUDING GARDEN RAILINGS ADJOINING THE RIVER FRONT, THE STRAND
Location
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Images of England Project
- Date:
- 2004-06-20
- Reference:
- IOE01/12626/32
- Rights:
- © Dr Barbara Hilton. Source: Historic England Archive
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1385366
- Date first listed:
- 31-Aug-1988
- List Entry Name:
- Bridge Chambers Including Garden Railings Adjoining the River Front
- Statutory Address 1:
- BRIDGE CHAMBERS INCLUDING GARDEN RAILINGS ADJOINING THE RIVER FRONT, THE STRAND
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- BRIDGE CHAMBERS INCLUDING GARDEN RAILINGS ADJOINING THE RIVER FRONT, THE STRAND
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- County:
- Devon
- District:
- North Devon (District Authority)
- Parish:
- Barnstaple
- National Grid Reference:
- SS 55816 33020
Details
BARNSTAPLE
SS5533SE THE STRAND
684-1/7/243 (South West side)
31/08/88 Bridge Chambers, including garden
railings adjoining the river front
GV II
Offices; one end was originally a hall for use as the County
Court, and for meetings and auction sales. 1872-3. By RD
Gould. Yellow brick with details in dressed limestone. Slated
roofs with crested red ridge-tiles, except over the hall which
now has plain ridge-tiles. 4 chimneys on ridge of W range, 3
on E range, one on S range and 2 on N range. Most have
clusters of circular shafts on a base of yellow brick, the
shafts being of a dark brown local stone with a limestone
moulding halfway up and at the top. The 2 southern stacks on
the E range have rebuilt shafts of cream-coloured brick, and
there is a similar stack, probably a much later addition, on
the S roof slope of the N range.
Rectangular plan built round 2 internal courtyards, the latter
divided by a cross range linking the E and W sides of the
building; the former hall (now sub-divided) occupies the first
floor of the N range.
2 storeys. Designed in late medieval style with fronts of good
architectural quality on all 4 sides. The best front (facing W
towards the river) is 15-window range with a gabled cross-wing
at each end. Off-centre to right is a large canted bay window
rising above the general roof line and with a hipped roof.
Off-centre to left is a window set in a shallow projection
with a dormer gable on top.
Windows are mostly plain with moulded stone lintels, but those
in the canted bay have pointed arches and Gothic head tracery.
Windows between canted bay and right cross-wing are of 2
lights with column in centre having a foliated capital.
Projecting window to left is of 3 similar lights, the
2nd-storey window having before it a stone balcony with open,
trefoil-headed panels. Cross-wing to left has in ground storey
2 pairs of windows with pointed arches and decorated iron
grilles. Second storey has 2 large mullioned-and-transomed
windows with pointed arches and Gothic head tracery, some of
it containing coloured glass. Side wall, facing N, has 4
similar windows in upper storey and 4 large segmental-headed
windows in ground storey. On centre of roof ridge is an
octagonal fleche with Gothic windows, gargoyle and a weather
vane.
The best feature of the rest of the building is a
single-storeyed structure with a curved front, set into the SE
corner facing the Square. It has a range of 5 pointed arches
springing from square columns with foliated stone capitals,
the feet of the arches decorated with a dragon and other
creatures. Above it, set back, is a square turret with a
steeply-pitched roof. Pointed-arched doorway facing Strand has
a foliated star-panelled grille with BRIDGE CHAMBERS.
INTERIOR: very plain, including the staircases. The exception
is the former hall which has an arch-braced roof with
patterned ceiling, the trusses springing from gigantic carved
stone corbels. Hooded stone chimneypiece in early medieval
style.
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: garden on river frontage has an iron
railing with spearhead standards and uprights. Fixed to the
wall adjoining the bridge is a bronze plaque recording the
widening of the bridge in 1834 by James Green, civil engineer,
using iron from the Neath Abbey Iron Company.
HISTORICAL NOTE: the building was erected as an investment
property for the Barnstaple Bridge Trust, who were generally
concerned to improve the appearance of the town, and in this
case, no doubt, to produce a design sympathetic to the
medieval bridge.
It is believed that the Trust retains Gould's original
drawings. Very prominent in views of Barnstaple from across
the river.
(Cruse JB: The Long Bridge of Barnstaple: 1982-: 15-16).
Listing NGR: SS5581633020
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 485828
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Books and journals
Cruse, J B, The Long Bridge of Barnstaple, (1982), 15, 16
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 09-Jun-2026 at 23:28:57.
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