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Summary

Site of 49 and 50 high Street. These buildings appeared to date from the late 17th or 18th century but were extensively modified in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Location

Protected Status: none recorded

Other References/Statuses

• Old DCC SMR Ref: SS53SE/549

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• BUILDING (XVIII to XXI - 1701 AD to 2009 AD (Between))

Full description

Ordnance Survey, 1973, SS5433-5533 (Cartographic). SDV77308.

Weddell, P. J., 1992, Archaeological Assessment of CRS Redevelopment Site at 49-52 High Street, Barnstaple, 5 (Report - Assessment). SDV73610.

49 and 50 High Street appear to be late 18th or 19th century. The ground floors have been extensively modified to accommodate shop fittings. Rear external walls rendered, although timber visible in the north side wall of No. 50. The stores and detached buildings to the rear were not accessible for inspection.

Stead, P. M. + Matthews, A. J. + Collings, A. G., 1994, Archaeological Excavation and Building Recording at 49-52 High Street, Barnstaple, 2 (Report - Excavation). SDV73095.

49 High Street. The north wall of this tenement was one of the earliest surviving features, a cob wall on stone foundations, probably late 17th or early 18th century. Recorded up to 23 metres back from the street frontage. This did not survive in the front block, which was rebuilt partly in stone in the 18th century and brick in the 20th century. The remainder of 5 walls were virtually all rebuilt in modern materials. The front block was 8 metres by 5.4 metres deep internally, the rear rooms being about 4.4 metres wide. On the first floor the early cob wall survived in one room towards the rear. The front first-floor room was largely rebuilt in brick in the 18th century, and fireplaces and chimney stacks were added in other rooms at this time. Other rooms on this floor have been rebuilt in brick or timber-frame, or modern materials. The same was true of the 5 second floor rooms, all of which were 19th century or later. The roof above the front block was not accessible at the time of the survey, but limited observations were made from below. The trusses were lapped at the apex with a ridge-piece resting on them and with 2 purlins on either side. This section of roof would appear to be the earliest in date of the buildings examined. The mansard roof to the rear was 19th century. Its construction essentially comprised a queen-post truss with the apex truncated at collar-beam level.
50 High Street. Fragments of 17th/18th century cob wall survived to the rear, just over 6 metres long. The represented the north boundary wall of the tenement at this point. It contained a timber mullioned window on the ground floor, with 3 mullions and glazing bars. Very little survived of the front block on the ground floor. The upper floors showed evidence of being rebuilt in the alte 19th/early 20th century but contained some decorative plaster coving of the 19th century. On the ground floor, the central room appears to have been enlarged to its current size (11.8 metres by 5.4 metres) by incorporating part of the adjoining No. 51. The walls were 19th century stone and early 20th century stone and brick. The rear ground floor room was formerly divided into two, each room with separate fireplaces of 18th/19th century date. These were blocked in the early 20th century. The second and third floors were remodelled in the late 19th century. The roof about the third floor of the front block was very similar to the queen-post truss frame within No. 49. The remaining roof structures were more recent.

Southwest Archaeology, 2013, Greater Barnstaple Area Project Database, Mapping Area 141 (Un-published). SDV351581.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV4505 - Archaeological Assessment at 49-52 High Street, Barnstaple (Ref: 92.52)

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