Description

DARTMOUTH

SX874510 THE QUAY
673-1/8/261 (West side)
14/09/49 No.13
(Formerly Listed as:
THE QUAY
Nos.12 AND 13)

GV II*

Merchant's house, now a shop with flats above. Probably 1639
on land leased to Edward Spurway, with later C17, C19 and C20
modernisations. Mixed construction; thick party walls of local
stone rubble, exposed walls of plastered timber-framing; stone
rubble stack with C19 brick chimneyshaft; slate roof.
PLAN: Built end onto The Quay with right (north) side wall
onto Duke Street. One-room plan with stairway to rear. Stack
in left party wall shared with No.12 (qv). The C17 house had
main entrance from Duke Street behind the shop.
EXTERIOR: 3 storeys with attics; one-window range.
Superficially it is late C19, but C17 structure indicated by
jettied upper floors. End of the stone party wall, the left
side wall, corbels out to carry the jetties. It is plastered
but a hoodmould just below the corbelling for the second-floor
jetty indicates the survival of a date plaque. Ground floor
has a C20 shop front which returns onto Duke Street with a
canted corner (upper structure supported by an iron column).
Recessed front doorway contains good bottom-panelled glazed
door with large oval of glazing bars. C20 windows above, all
3-lights, casements to the first floor and sashes without
glazing bars above. Second-floor jetty carried on a series of
large shaped timber brackets and bottom corner of the
bressummer carved with an unusual version of bead-and-reel,
early for 1639. Plain tall gable. Duke Street return contains
C20 windows without glazing bars.
INTERIOR: All carpentry hidden behind C19 and C20 plaster and
fireplaces blocked but, apart from the first-floor structure,
the C17 house is probably well-preserved. Late C17 stair from
first to second floor has closed string, panelled square newel
posts, moulded flat handrail and large turned balusters.
First-floor landing also has a late C17 timber segmental arch
with keystone through the party wall connecting with No.12
(qv). Second floor not available for inspection, but in the
attic the bottoms of the principals of probably original 3-bay
roof structure shows.
HISTORY: Corner house, probably built as right-hand house of a
pair with No.12 (qv). This is one of a group of merchants'
houses built on reclaimed land in a Town Corporation-backed
scheme to reclaim land for housing and expand the port
facilities with the New Quay. This began in 1585, and by the
second phase, in the 1630s, this was the most fashionable part
of the town, and the surviving C17 houses here are amongst the
best merchants' houses of their period in Devon.
(Freeman, Ray: Dartmouth and its Neighbours: Phillimore:
1990-: P.76-83).

Listing NGR: SX8779251389

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17534312

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

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