See important guidance on the use of this record.

If you have any comments or new information about this record, please email us.

Summary

Late 15th century building with later remodelling. The building retains a medieval roof.

Location

Protected Status

• Listed Building (II) 1119695: 4, QUEEN STREET

Other References/Statuses

• Old Listed Building Ref (II): 469192

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• HOUSE (XV to XIX - 1475 AD to 1900 AD)

Full description

Child, P., 1997, 4 Queen Street, Bideford (Correspondence). SDV347466.

Site visit in 1997 by Peter Child and Michael Laithwaite. Part of a very grand medieval town house. It is possible that the rest of it is subsumed within the next house, but access was not possible. Very close to the waterfront. Curiously, the house is beyond the area of the medieval quay, at least as far as this has been established. What can be seen of the house today consists of a front range at right angles to the street, with two trusses surviving from a very fine medieval roof, but one that was clearly not smoke-blackened. This might therefore be the storied cross-wing of a house with a hall range which has either been lost or is subsumed in the adjacent property. Behind this range and connected to it by a structure (which has a 17th century roof truss, but no other dating evidence) is a range parallel to the street, which has a series of "short crucks" which might be smoke-blackened, although the evidence of this is debatable. It might possibly originally have been a detached kitchen.
The roof is 15th century arch-braced with a double ridge and false hammer beams hacked on their underside. The gap between arch-brace and collar is filled with a separate triangular-shaped piece, and the truss nearest the street seems to have had a decorative pendant in the centre, where there is now a gap. The panels between the purlins and the rafters are covered, so that it is not possible to see if there are any surviving windbraces; there is evidence for these in one place, where there is a mortice. The mouldings on the braces and the purlins have a family resemblance to those at West Challacombe, but probably only beccause they are of the same general architectural period.

Child, P., 1997, 4 Queen Street, Bideford (Ground Photograph). SDV364917.

Photos of exterior and interior features.

Torridge District Council, 2003, Bideford Townscape Heritage Initiative Stage 2 Bid, 9 (Un-published). SDV345899.

The building has been dated to circa 1475.

Torridge District Council, 2009, Bideford Conservation Area Appraisal, 13 (Report - non-specific). SDV351295.

A fine late 15th century house which has been truncated at the front. No doubt the original house front faced the line of the original Quay and would have been occupied by a wealthy merchant with
lower status properties at the rear with their cruck frames still in-situ.
Other notable examples of early building periods are to be found on the Quay, Allhalland St, Cooper St and High St; all providing physical evidence of the town’s 16th and 17th century building period.

Torridge District Council, 2009, Bideford Conservation Area Appraisal, 15 (Report - non-specific). SDV351295.

Four Queen St. is the Conservation Area’s oldest building, dated circa 1485, with a two bay medieval roof and a back range containing three raised smoke blackened cruck trusses.

English Heritage, 2010, Historic Houses Register (List of Blds of Arch or Historic Interest). SDV154869.

House with shop. Circa late 15th century, remodelled in the early-mid 19th century. Stuccoed stone. Slate roofs with gabled ends.
Plan: the front range has a 2-bay late medieval roof at right angles to the road; probably a first floor chamber. At the back there is a range, parallel with the road, with a late medieval 2-bay roof [apparently smoke-blackened] and probably part of the back range of Number3. It would appear that the back range was independent of the front range; in about the early-mid 19th century the front range was refronted and united with the back range.
Exterior: 2 storeys. 1-bay east front with 20th century shop on ground floor and 20th century 3-light window above; doorway to left with round arch, semi-circular fanlight with radiating glazing bars and panelled door. The range at the back also has 20th century windows.
Interior: at the front, at right-angles to street, is a 2-bay medieval roof, truncated at the front, with 2 moulded arch-braced trusses on moulded wooden corbels, with moulded wall-plates and moulded purlins; it is not smoke-blackened and appears to be a first floor chamber that could have extended further to the rear [west]. The back range has a 2-bay roof parallel to the street, with 3 raised cruck trusses [principals with curved feet], mortice and tenoned to cambered collars and with threaded purlins; it appears to be smoke-blackened and the floor with a chamfered cross-beam [morticed for partition below] inserted in about the 17th century.

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

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments: none recorded

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events: none recorded

Search results generated by the HBSMR Gateway from exeGesIS SDM Ltd.