38-44, THE BANK

Nos. 38-44 The Bank, Barnard Castle

A terrace of four houses, now comprising four shops with three flats above, situated on the east side of The Bank. The building dates from the late 17th century, probably incorporating earlier fabric (a fire is recorded in 1621), with alterations made mostly in the 19th century.

Architectural Character

The terrace is three storeys high with a continuous roof of stone slates, stone ridge, stone gable copings and brick chimneys. The composition varies across the range: No. 38 to the left is rendered in painted incised stucco, while Nos. 40-44 are constructed in ashlar with varied banded rustication, ashlar dressings and projecting quoins.

No. 38 (possibly originally a service wing) has quoins to its left side. It retains a late 19th-century shop front with a central door beneath a shallow fascia, and a step up to a half-glazed door of around 1900 to the right. Upper floors have 8-pane sash windows on the first floor and small 6-pane windows with single opening lower panes on the second floor, all set in plain reveals.

Nos. 40-44 display quoins and banded rustication. The rustication is interrupted by narrower banding across the right part of No. 42. The principal entrance is marked by a low half-glazed 6-panel door at the right, flanked by squat Mannerist Ionic pilasters on the jambs above the rustication, with a stone lintel carved in imitation of voussoirs. To the left at the same height is a flat arch with voussoirs, suggesting the door has been repositioned to the right. A passageway to Wycliffe Chapel Yard runs through the first bay of No. 44 and is marked by a flat arch of 3 or 4 stones, carved in imitation of voussoirs with narrow rustication to the jambs. The rustication on the left jamb is continuous with that of No. 42, while the right jamb is inserted into older rustication of No. 44, indicating that the right part of No. 42 was altered at an unknown date when this vehicle arch was inserted or modified.

The shop fronts reflect various periods. No. 40 has a domestic-type small canted bay window with 4-pane sashes, a stone plinth and wood cornice. No. 42 features a full-width late 19th-century projecting front with arched lights flanking a central recessed half-glazed door, with slender angle shafts supporting a small entablature. No. 44 has a half-glazed door and overlight to the left of a projecting square window, with slender panelled pilasters and an entablature which breaks forward over the window.

All upper windows have architraves; those on the first floor feature moulded sills. An entablature with pulvinated frieze forms the sill of the small second-floor windows, except at the second bay of No. 40, which has no second-floor window. No. 44 is distinctive for its second-floor windows breaking through the eaves in dormers with pedimented gables; the lintels of the upper windows of Nos. 40 and 42 show clear breaks from their jambs, suggesting they may formerly have been in this same style. The first-floor windows are 8-pane sashes at Nos. 40 and 42, and plain sashes at No. 44. The second floor has a horizontal sliding sash at the left of No. 40, 20th-century plain glazing at No. 42, and 3-over-6-pane sashes at No. 44.

The roof is continuous across all four houses, with end gable copings on eroded block kneelers, the right one bearing a concave foot for a former finial. A roof light has been inserted into No. 40, and the brick ridge chimneys at the ends and to the right of each house have been renewed.

Rear Wings

Each house has rear wings, longer to Nos. 38 and 44. These show some broad glazing bars (No. 40), first-floor stone mullions at No. 42, and stone surrounds with broad glazing bars to the sashes at No. 44. An inserted 3-light stone-mullioned window appears in No. 38's rear wing.

Interior

No. 38's front range contains a rear semicircular stone winder stair leading to an upper flight with closed string, incised 17th-century plank balusters and a narrow grip handrail. The square newels narrow to collared chamfered hexagonal finials. A partially blocked 2-light stone-mullioned stair window is present. On the ground floor, 20th-century stone corbels support a chamfered cross-beam with stepped tongue stops; stone steps descend to the cellar. The first floor has a timber stud partition, while the second floor is open to the roof and contains a blocked gable light and a small rectangular recess below a central collared and halved A-truss of 18th-century character with tie beam and two levels of purlins; the ridge is set in the angle between crossed principal rafters. The rear wing, unrestored at the time of survey, features a boarded door with butterfly hinges and an elaborate cast-iron grate on the first floor; the roof contains halved trusses with two levels of purlins.

No. 40 has a ground-floor plain wood fire beam at the left, an inserted 19th-century Gothic central post, and a re-used cross-beam with masons' marks in the stone of the left cross-wall. A small 17th-century cupboard salvaged from elsewhere on The Bank is inserted at the right. The rear contains a filleted and ledged boarded door salvaged from a house near Brough. The first floor has wide floorboards and a stone fireplace, probably original, with a Tudor arch inscribed "MS.AS.ANO.DM.1621" and renewed jambs; a mason's mark appears over the door. A part of a stone stair is visible in the right wall. A closed string stair ascends to the second floor, which is open to the roof with renewed trusses. The rear wing shows a blocked door and window at the left, a late 20th-century stone fireplace with a corbelled hood in medieval style and a herringbone brick fireback against the front range, ovolo-moulded broad glazing bars, and stairs moved from front to back room. No. 40 contains many inserted historic features.

No. 44's first floor has wide floorboards and a deep stucco ceiling cornice with cross-beam mouldings to the left room over an archway; where the cornice has been removed to the right, sections showing cyma, pendant-and-quirk, and ovolo mouldings are visible. Some 3-panel doors and an 18th-century cupboard behind a 19th-century door are present. The second floor is open to the roof and contains two trusses. The left truss, set into the cross-wall, has thin upper crucks halved at the apex with a thin collar. The right truss, constructed of wood of a rich warm chestnut colour, features big principals with two collars; the second collar is a saddle extending across the principals with purlins set into the projecting ends. The principals appear to be reduced, though they may be truncated above the upper collar, which has later queen posts to a thin ridge piece. The purlins have been renewed.

The interior of No. 42 was not inspected at the time of survey. Parts of some rear wings were in poor condition. No. 38 was listed separately on 22 February 1973.