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Summary

The rear wing of 39 High Street in Totnes was built in the late 16th or early 17th century, and was converted to cottages in the 20th century.

Location

Protected Status

• Listed Building (II*) 1237072: OUTBUILDING TO REAR OF NO 39 (FORMER KITCHEN BLOCK)

Other References/Statuses

• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX86SW/117/1
• Old Listed Building Ref (II*): 428278

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• HOUSE (XVI to XVIII - 1501 AD to 1800 AD (Between))

Full description

Department of Environment, 1981, Totnes (List of Blds of Arch or Historic Interest). SDV342724.

Outbuilding to rear of 39 High Street. Former kitchen block, 16th or early 17th century. Coursed rubble. Two storeys. Contains important plaster ceiling of geometrical pattern divided into strips by chamfered beams.

Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England, 1982, Totnes: Wing to the Rear of 39 High Street (Report - Survey). SDV342723.

The rear wing of a town house probably of the late 16th or early 17th century, formerly separated from the main body of the house by a courtyard (now filled in) but connected with it by a gallery. The building was latterly in separate occupation as one or more cottages. The original three rooms on the ground floor probably comprised a parlour of some sort, a buttery or other service room (or possibly a staircase bay), and a kitchen in the building's northern end. The southern room has a decorated plaster ceiling, of the same character as that in the front range dated 1624, though this may not be original. The use of the rooms on the first floor is less clear, and it is uncertain how many there may have been and where their partitions were. Plans.

Keystone Historic Buildings Consultants, 1993, 39 High Street, Totnes, Devon, 22-25 (Report - Survey). SDV342721.

The cottage nearest the main block, called First Cottage, was visited very briefly during the course of the survey. It has been renovated in the last 10-15 years, and the present layout is largely the result of these 20th century building works. A two-room plan cottage facing west onto the yard with a central stair hall, it has thick stone rubble side walls (now technically front and back) and the upper section of the gable-ended south wall (onto the site of the courtyard) is slate hung timber framing. The cottage occupies the front two rooms of the historic rear block. The front room was three bays, but the late 19th or early 20th century stair and end of the contemporary stockroom now encroach into the southern end. The ceiling of the front room has the extensive remains of a 16th century ornamental plaster ceiling, marking this as a room of some status in the original house. Each bay has an overall single rib design based on an intersecting four-petal pattern with quatrefoils. Here there are no angle sprays, simply bosses at the main intersections, but the moulded cornice includes a frieze of leaves and flowers based on elements used in large sprays in the main block ceiling.

Green, T., 2008, North Gate Lodge, Castle Street, Totnes: Results of an Archaeological Desk-Based Study, 24 (Report - Assessment). SDV342884.

Ordnance Survey, 2012, MasterMap (Cartographic). SDV348725.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV4545 - Assessment of Northgate Lodge, Castle Street, Totnes

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