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Summary

Probably an 18th century house with alterations. May be the lower end of a single building with the adjacent house representing the lower end. The interior retains three roof trusses with carved braces and decorated plasterwork.

Location

Protected Status

• Listed Building (II) 1385245: ROSE AND CROWN PUBLIC HOUSE

Other References/Statuses

• Old DCC SMR Ref: SS53SE/513
• Old Listed Building Ref (II)

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• PUBLIC HOUSE (XVI to Post Medieval - 1501 AD to 1750 AD (Between))

Full description

Ordnance Survey, 1855-1895, Towns 1855-95 1:500 (Cartographic). SDV348147.

Rose & Crown (P.H.) marked.

Department of Environment, 1973, Barnstaple, 41 (List of Blds of Arch or Historic Interest). SDV89941.

Rose and Crown, Newport Road. Probably 16th century with alterations, 2 storey, 3 casement windows at first floor with glazing bars. Stucco, painted. Interior includes 3 roof truss curved braces, cave to moulded and with carved rose, and foliate ornament.

Weddell, P. J., 1990, Archaeological Recording in the Medieval Borough of Newport, Barnstaple in 1983., 114 (Article in Serial). SDV77188.

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

English Heritage, 2012, National Heritage List for England (National Heritage List for England). SDV348729.

Rose and Crown Public House (Formerly Listed as Rose & Crown Inn).
House, now public house. Probably 16th century with alterations (old list description). Smooth-rendered mass wall construction; slate roof, gabled at ends; stack with clustered shafts (some of old brick) at junction with adjoining house with old pots, rear right stack with rendered shaft. Details of plan unclear as access refused at time of survey. External appearance suggests that the public house may be the higher end of a 3-room-and-cross-passage plan, lower end the house to the left. 2 storeys. 3-window range with 2-leaf 19th century front door in centre. 4-light small-pane 20th century bowed window to left. 2 ground-floor windows to right of door and 3 first-floor, all small-pane casements with glazing bars. Right return (to South Street) has one doorway , one ground-floor casement and one first-floor sash.
Interior not inspected, bar on ground floor probably altered. Old list description refers to 3 roof trusses with curved braces and decorated plasterwork.

Green, C, 2014, Rose and Crown, 52 Newport Road, Barnstaple, Devon: An Historic Building Assessment (Report - Survey). SDV358350.

Historic building assessment at the former Rose and Crown, 52 Newport Road, Barnstaple, in April and May 2014.

The assessment is intended to determine the archaeological and historical potential of the Site and
to inform the scope and nature of any archaeological constraints with relation to the renovation and
development of the building.

The assessment has confirmed that the Rose and Crown originated as a 16th or 17th century house (see
Figure 4). This is based on the three surviving jointed cruck trusses within the roof, the curved blades
continuing to the first-floor rooms and set within solid walls. Devon rural crucks of the fifteenth to
seventeenth centuries were set into solid walls of cob or stone as opposed to the timber frames used
for pre-18th century town houses, several of which are known in Barnstaple (Beacham 2001, 17).
However, internal timber-framed partitions were common in rural houses, the first floor rooms
without ceilings and therefore open to the roof (ibid.,17-18). Indeed, there are remnants of timber
internal partitioning within the roof of the Rose and Crown. Together with the absence of smoke-blackening to the roof timbers, it is concluded that this was not an open hall. This would suggest that the large chimney constructed within the south-east gable end may be original, although chimneys are not usually associated with cruck building (except as later inserts) and are generally accepted as
being a 17th century adaption.

The building had become the Rose and Crown public house prior to 1798, with sales particulars listing
a tenement, a stable, a plot of ground and the Rose and Crown. The 1840 tithe map only shows the
public house and kitchen extension (see Figure 4). Although the 1843 tithe apportionment lists a house and court, this does not correspond with a sale document for the Rose and Crown dated 1859 which proves it remained a public house. This also reveals that the public house had remained in the ownership of the Isaac family as opposed to the different owner and occupier listed in the tithe
apportionment. Another document dated 1859 details repairs to the Rose and Crown following the sale; this includes the stable, brew house, boundary wall, and within the public house to the bedroom
ceilings, ceiling joists and windows.

By 1889 the buildings around the courtyard were in place, although the present skittle alley was in a
separate plot which may have been a school (see Figure 4). This had been amalgamated with the
Site by 1904. A small brick lean-to had been added by 1972 but overall there have been no significant
changes to the building footprints. In contrast, the interior of the public house has been altered
significantly throughout its history, with evidence of blocked openings, a change in the first-storey floor level, insertion of ceilings to the first floor bedrooms, and the insertion and later removal of a bay window to the north-east elevation.

To conclude, the surviving original roof timbers are important historic features; these comprise the
jointed cruck trusses, curved blades (including the rose and leaf carvings), purlins, arched braces and
remnants of timber partitions. More detailed recording of the roof timbers would perhaps provide a
closer date for the building. Nevertheless, the jointed cruck construction set within a solid wall is in-keeping with late medieval/early post-medieval rural houses. This would make it contemporary with
the group of 16th and 17th century buildings centred on the medieval marketplace, within the borough
of Newport and on the outskirts of the medieval town of Barnstaple. Despite extensive later alterations within the building, it is possible that further historic features, such as blocked windows and doors or evidence for internal partitions, may be uncovered during renovation works. With the
exception of the kitchen range which was present by 1840, the other buildings within the Rose and Crown complex date from the late 19th century; none are considered to be historically significant.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events: none recorded

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