Nos. 1 And 2 And Attached Front Garden Walls And Railings

A pair of houses dating to circa 1793, built for Francis Basset, Lord De Dunstanville. Number 2 (the right-hand house) was let to Captain Couse from 1793 to 1799. The houses are constructed with a granite ashlar basement, and otherwise brick facades (Number 1 being painted). They have dry slate roofs to Number 1, asbestos slate to Number 2, and brick end stacks, with four 20th-century roof dormers.

The houses were designed with a double-depth plan and present a symmetrical 5-window front over two storeys plus a later attic level, built over a basement. The architectural details include painted quoins, a mid-floor string course, rosettes and triglyphs to the eaves cornice, and keyblocks above flat brick arches over late 19th or 20th-century 2-pane horned sash windows. Each house features an original round-arched doorway with an open pediment, Roman Doric fluted half-columns, and a spoked fanlight above a 6-panel door.

The interior of Number 2 retains good quality original and early 19th-century features, including a heavy moulded cornice to the left-hand room, an eared chimney-piece to the right-hand room, an open-well open-string staircase with stick balusters, some moulded cornices with bands, window shutters, and panelled doors. Number 1 was not inspected.

The property has rubble and brick front garden walls with renewed plain railings to the front and mid-19th-century wrought-iron gates topped with fleur-de-lis finials. Historical records indicate Captain Charles Couse, who married Catherine Bell, daughter of the Packet Agent George Bell, resided here and later served as captain of the Packet Ships Walsingham and Roebuck before being dismissed and leaving the property.