Description

TIVERTON

SS9512 HEATHCOAT SQUARE, Tiverton
848-1/6/205 Nos.1-14 (Consecutive)
including boundary walls, railings
at east & west ends of square &
garden gates

GV II

Two terraces, each of 7 working class or artisans' houses, on
the north and south sides of the square, the east and west
ends of the latter being enclosed by low boundary walls.
c1820s-44. The north range was badly damaged by fire in 1919,
but has been restored.
MATERIALS: rendered, solid walls; north range appears to have
been of unrendered stone rubble at the time of the 1919 fire.
Front wall of this range now has a series of iron tie bars in
the third storey. Slated roofs. No chimneys.
PLAN: double-fronted, almost certainly double-depth. The third
storeys are said to have been separately occupied originally,
and in 1919 that of the north range was reached by an external
staircase at the west end. Access on the east is by a short
road opening out of Leat Street, and on the east by an alley
entered from an archway under No.7 John Street (qv).
EXTERIOR: 3 storeys. 2-window fronts with centre doorways. Nos
1-7 (on the south side) have 4-panelled doors, the upper
panels raised and fielded with ovolo moulded surrounds, the
lower ones flush. Nos 8-14 have C20 flush wooden doors, except
for Nos 12 & 13 which have original doors with 4 flush panels
and cast-iron knockers. Most of the doorways have flat arches,
but the arches at Nos 9, 12, 13 & 14 are segmental.
The windows in both ranges have box-framed sashes, the frames
almost flush with the rendering; sashes are 2-paned with a
single upright glazing bar. All the windows have cast-iron
sills. Fixed to the wall at No.1, at the left end of the
second storey, is a shaped cast-iron plaque inscribed
HEATHCOAT SQUARE.
INTERIOR: not inspected.
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: the boundary wall at the east end is of
red brick, the section south of the path with a coping of
chamfered red tiles, that to the north with a curved cast-iron
coping. Upon the latter stands a C19 iron railing with moulded
finials to the standards. The walls have been repaired with
C20 brick in several places.
The west boundary wall is of stone rubble the northern section
with a tiled coping like that at the east end, but ramped up
against the face of the house on the north.
The southern section has a rendered, stone rubble coping. The
front boundaries of the gardens now have C20 wire fences with
wooden gate-pots, but the patterned iron gates seem to be C19;
the gate at No.14 has an old cast-iron number plate attached
to it.
HISTORY: the square is shown as John Heathcoat's property in
his estate atlas of 1844, when it was called Quick's Court (a
name still retained on the 25-inch OS Map of 1888). The layout
was much as now, except that there were 14 houses on each
side, together with 2 more set back at the east end of the
north side; a small building stood against the western
boundary wall. There was no entrance at the west end (since
John Street had not yet been laid out), and access from Leat
Street was apparently a little further north; an addition to
the map shows that the present entrance, involving the
demolition of a house, was cut through by Heathcoat. The
number of houses was reduced to its present total of 14
somewhere between the 1851 and 1861 censuses; whether the
buildings were remodelled or rebuilt at this period is
unknown.
The returns of 1841-1881 show a high proportion of lace
workers among the occupants, but there were a few shoemakers
and other craftsmen who cannot have been employed in
Heathcoat's factory. Michael Laithwaite argues that there is
no firm evidence of the square's existence before 1841, except
for entries of `14 Cottages in the Square' in the Land Tax
Assessment of 1830 and 1832, when John Heathcoat was given as
the owner. One Thomas Quick (d.1831) a woollen manufacturer
with a factory near Heathcoat's, may have been renting them
from him as far back as the 1820s. Brayshay argues that the
square may be as early as 1816, used to accommodate
Heathcoat's Loughborough workers, and refers to rentals from
the 1820s in the Knighsthayes Estate Office (Heathcoat Rent
Book, 1823-34) He also suggests that the top storey was used
for looms or workshops (p.85) the upper storeys converted to
extra accommodation, accessible by means of an external
staircase, but gives no reference for the source of this.
According to Brayshay there were 11 dwellings on each side by
the 1820s and by the 1860s there was a lean-to bakery 'at the
end of the row' (p.85).
A very significant survival of industrial housing of this
type, especially in a regional context and also a national.
(Southern History: Brayshay M: Heathcoat's Industrial Housing
in Tiverton: 1991-: PP.82-104).

Listing NGR: SS9508812688

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26664660

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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