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Summary

Late 17th century town house which is well preserved, with much surviving historic joinery. Forms an important grouping with the neighbouring, gable fronted houses. House is built parallel to the street and has a formal appearance with regularly arranged sash windows, a later shop front and gablets incorporating dormers in the roof. In around 2015, unauthorised works removed much of the internal plasterwork from the house and subsequently the historic structure has been inspected.

Location

Protected Status

• Listed Building (II) 1201029: 16, WEST STREET

Other References/Statuses

• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX76NE/172
• Old Listed Building Ref (II)

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• TOWN HOUSE (XVII - 1650 AD to 1699 AD (Between))
• SHOP (XVIII to XIX - 1800 AD to 1850 AD (Between))

Full description

Department of Environment, 1973, Ashburton, 45 (List of Blds of Arch or Historic Interest). SDV300597.

No. 16, West Street. Probably early 18th century, two storey and attic, two front dormer gables with sliding casements with glazing bars. Four flush frame sash windows at first floor. Rusticated quoins. Slate roof, eaves soffit. Stucco, lined and painted. Ground floor, sash window, left, wood shop front, right with pilasters and two entrances with fanlight.

Ordnance Survey, 2013, MasterMap (Cartographic). SDV350786.

English Heritage, 2013, National Heritage List for England (National Heritage List for England). SDV350785.

No.16 WEST STREET
House with shop. Early C18 with early or mid C19 shop front. Rendered front (almost certainly timber-framed), lined to imitate masonry. Slated roof. Old rendered chimney on each gable. 2 storeys with garret. 4 windows wide. Rusticated flanking pilaster-strips. Cornice at first floor level. 6-paned sashes. Ground storey has a single window to left. Shop front to right has shop door flanked by display windows, each with a single upright glazing-bar; house door to left. These are flanked and separated by pilasters supporting an entablature. Boxed eaves-cornice. 2 triangular dormers with slate-hung faces; each has a 2-light wood casement window with 6 panes per light.
Listing NGR: SX7553469842

White, N., 2015, 16 West Street, Ashburton, Devon (Report - Survey). SDV358810.

Unauthorised works (in 2015?) removed much of the internal plasterwork from the house and subsequently the historic structure has been inspected.
16 West Street is a town house built in a prominent location in the centre of Ashburton. Mixed construction with stone rubble at the sides and timber framed walls at the front and rear. It has a double-depth plan with a central cross-passage running from front to rear with a staircase at the back lit by a large, five-light mullion window.
The interior has been stripped of much of its wall and floor finishes, revealing the form of construction and earlier layers of development. The latter includes early windows and layers of plaster.
While the deep floor plan, interior joinery and surviving plaster is late 17th or early 18th century in character the style of the roof carpentry is consistent with an earlier date. This is anomalous with the neighbouring properties, numbers 12 and 14, which have an earlier style of floor plan but later style of roof carpentry. However, it is difficult to see how such a deeply spanned roof could have worked with an earlier layout. On balance, the main part of the building is thought to date from the late 17th century. There are several layers of vestigial plaster on the stone rubble walls forming the sides of the building, strongly suggesting that these formed part of an earlier building.
The house is significant in showing how the architecture of the town evolved through the 17th and 18th centuries and in making an important aesthetic contribution to the historic town centre.
For full details, see report.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV6822 - 16 West Street, Ashburton

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