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Summary

The archaeological monitoring and recording (2017) to the rear of 26 Lawrence Lane revealed an earlier phase of building beneath the extant structure being converted and clarified some of the details regarding the composition of the site including a probable well, the relationships (or lack thereof) of walls across the site and in-filling phase of the sites chimney stack.

Location

Protected Status: none recorded

Other References/Statuses: none recorded

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• TANNERY (Built, XV to XIX - 1401 AD? (Between) to 1900 AD (Between))
• WELL (Constructed, XIX - 1801 AD (Between) to 1899 AD (Between))

Full description

South West Heritage Trust, 1838-1848, Digitised Tithe Maps and Transcribed Apportionments (Cartographic). SDV359954.

Ordnance Survey, 1880-1899, First Edition Ordnance 25 inch map (Cartographic). SDV336179.

Ordnance Survey, 1904 - 1906, Second Edition Ordnance Survey 25 inch Map (Cartographic). SDV325644.

Tingle, M., 2012, Historic Building Recording at The Old Armoury, 24 St Lawrence Lane, Ashburton (Report - Assessment). SDV359774.

Parker, R. W., 2014, Historic Building Survey of premises at the rear of Nos 24-26 St Lawrence Lane, Ashburton, 1-23 (Report - Survey). SDV365532.

Building survey carried out to inform a proposal to demolish the derelict buildings and construct a dwelling.
The documentary evidence clearly associates the present site with a late 18th and early 19th-century tannery, later converted for the manufacture of serges and blankets, a business which continued on the site into the middle of the 19th century. Parker suggests that the existing buildings represent the remains of the tannery buildings, truncated in the mid 19th century and then rebuilt for light industrial use in the years before 1900. The clearest evidence of the industrial use of the site is the large chimney, which is unlikely to relate to any domestic building and must have formed part of an industrial complex. The probable structural development and phasing of the buildings is outlined in the report (Fig 16).

Bampton, J., 2018, 26 St Lawrence Lane, Ashburton, DNPA, Devon Results of Archaeological Monitoring and Recording (Report - Watching Brief). SDV363757.

Monitoring and recording during the proposed development of the site from a domestic ancillary to business use. The site encompassed a ruinous building to the rear of a Grade II Listed building in the medieval town of Ashburton. Cartographic evidence showed the site to have been developed and altered through the 19th century.
A medieval deposit was identified and multiple phases of 19th century building developments associated with the historic uses of the property. This included a probable well, an earlier phase of wall footing, a drain, rubble in-fill to a chimney, a cobbled floor and wall relationships of the extant structure that had been obscured prior to the groundworks preparation.
It appears that the earliest element of the surviving building is the large ‘industrial’ chimney, which was clearly formerly taller and would have presumably once burnt very hot and fast. The chimney in the 19th century becomes incorporated into a building, which itself then undergoes multiple phases of alteration and adaption.
Further investigation of comparable chimneys to the one on site, perhaps including that at 28 Lawrence Lane, may provide more information regarding the original use or state of the chimney.
Much of the original fabric and features of the building have been retained, and archaeological deposits and features are likely to still survive on the site and the rest of the gardens.

Ordnance Survey, 2020, MasterMap 2020 (Cartographic). SDV363413.

Depicted on the modern mapping.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments: none recorded

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV8308 - Monitoring and Recording at rear of 26 St Lawrence Lane, Ashburton (Ref: ALL16)
• EDV7067 - Historic Building Recording at The Old Armoury, 24 St Lawrence Lane Ashburton
• EDV8932 - Survey of derelict premises at the rear of Nos 24-26 St Lawrence Lane, Ashburton (Ref: 2014.05)

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