Taw Vale Taw Vale Terrace Rear Yard And Garden Walls And Adjoining Stable Blocks

CREDITON

SS8399 STATION ROAD 672-1/4/160 (West side) 10/11/72 3 & 4 Taw Vale Terrace rear yard and garden walls and adjoining stable blocks

GV II

Includes: Taw Vale STATION ROAD. 2 adjoining houses including garden walls and stable blocks, the right hand pair of four built together. Erected on land bought by the Taw Valley Railway Company in 1830 (information from the owner of No 1) and probably part of the same development that includes the Railway Inn (q.v). Local volcanic trap rubble, the front elevation stuccoed, the remainder roughcast; slate roofs; stacks with brick shafts. Plan: each is L-plan, 2 rooms wide with a central entrance and centre rear lavatory projection. Outer rear service wings at right angles roofed parallel to the main blocks. Exterior: 2 storeys. Each villa has a symmetrical 3-bay east front with deep eaves carried on brackets. Clasping pilasters with sunk panels to left and right. Central Tuscan doorcase (matching the Railway Inn, part of the same development) with panelled reveals and steps up to 6-panel front doors, the lower panels flush, the upper panels of No 1 glazed. Original sash windows throughout, 16-pane except for first floor centre, which is 12-pane. The outer returns with 2 gables are also very complete with original sash windows and panelled doors to the services with doorcases with pilasters and flat porch hoods. Rear centre stair windows, cut across by the stair are small-pane with margin glazing, No 1 retains C19 stained glass to the margin panes. The enclosed rear service yards are also very complete: No 1 contains a small 2-storey building, said originally to have housed the coachman before being converted to a wash-house and coal store. Unrendered, tall volcanic stone rubble walls to the rear gardens, each with a doorway off Four Mills Lane. 2 stable blocks adjoin the service wing of No 2 at the rear. They are roofed parallel to the carriageway, each with a carriage door and 2 loft doors over. The carriageway retains the remnants of pitched stone paving. Interior: No 1 only inspected. Very complete internally with decorated plaster cornices and decorated plasterwork to the arches at the end of the entrance passage and into the service winged. original joinery includes skirtings, panelled doors and shutters. Marble chimney-piece to front left room. Stick baluster stair with a mahogany handrail. As mall unheated room, either butler's pantry or office, overlooks the service entrance. Comparison with the details of No 4 (q.v) indicates that each villa was fitted out with slightly different details. An unusually complete pair divided by an east west wall with a curving drive between Nos. 2 and 3. The survival of the overall plan of the development, along with Nos 3 & 4 and all the ancillary walls and stables is particularly rare.

Listing NGR: SX8394799594