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Summary

Also known as Quick's Court in the 19th century. Two terraces of three storey houses bought by Heathcoat in the early 19th century to house his factory workers.

Location

Protected Status

• Listed Building (II) 1384843: NUMBERS 1-14 INCLUDING BOUNDARY WALLS AND RAILINGS AT EAST AND WEST ENDS OF SQUARE AND GARDEN GATES

Other References/Statuses

• Old DCC SMR Ref: SS91SE/329
• Old Listed Building Ref (II): 485302

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• TERRACE (XVIII to XIX - 1701 AD to 1900 AD (Between))

Full description

Unknown, 1831, Untitled Source, 2 (Article in Serial). SDV349137.

Ordnance Survey, 1855-1895, First Edition 1:500 Town Map (Cartographic). SDV338879.

'Quick's Court' shown.

Authers, W.P. + Ponsford, C.N., 1978, Untitled Source (Monograph). SDV349136.

Other details: Plate 43.

Cherry, B. + Pevsner, N., 1989, The Buildings of England: Devon, 818 (Monograph). SDV325629.

Some of the earliest planned housing built by Heathcoat for his workers consisting of two plain ranges facing each other across gardens (flats above two storey houses).

Brayshay, M., 1991, Heathcoat's Industrial Housing in Tiverton, Devon, 85 (Article in Serial). SDV348975.

Heathcoat Square, formerly Quick's Court, one of a number of three-storey buildings originally occupied by weavers (who kept their looms on the top floor), which were bought by Heathcoat in 1815. In most cases he converted the upper storeys into extra accommodation accessible by means of an exterior staircase. By the 1820s it had been adapted to contain 11 dwellings each side. By the 1860s, however, as a result of enlargement and improvement of the cottages on one side of the court, there were only seven separate dwellings. At the end of the row there was also a lean-to bakery. By contrast, on the opposite side, some cottages had been subdivided to make a total of fourteen homes of varying sizes. Some dwellings were still occupied by Heathcoat factory outworkers in the 1870s and 1880s, with top floors used as workrooms. Other details: Plate.

Department for Culture, Media and Sport, 2000, Tiverton (List of Blds of Arch or Historic Interest). SDV341214.

Heathcoat Square, Nos.1-14 (Consecutive) including boundary walls, railings at east and west ends of square and garden gates. Two terraces, each of seven 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. circa1820s-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.
Exterior: three storeys. two-window fronts with centre doorways. Nos 1-7 (on the south side) have four-panelled doors, the upper panels raised and fielded with ovolo moulded surrounds, the lower ones flush. Nos 8-14 have 20th century flush wooden doors, except for Nos 12 and 13 which have original doors with four flush panels and cast-iron knockers. Most of the doorways have flat arches, but the arches at Nos 9, 12, 13 and 14 are segmental. The windows in both ranges have box-framed sashes, the frames almost flush with the rendering; sashes are two-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 19th century iron railing with moulded finials to the standards. The walls have been repaired with 20th century 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 20th century wire fences with wooden gate-pots, but the patterned iron gates seem to be 19th century; 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 Ordnance Survey Map of 1888). The layout was much as now, except that there were 14 houses on each side, together with two 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 (died 1831) a woollen manufacturer with a factory near Heathcoat's, may have been renting them from him as far back as the 1820s.

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

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events: none recorded

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