127 and 128, High Street

SS826000 672-1/5/105

CREDITON HIGH STREET (north side) Nos.127 and 128

GV II Builder's offices and showrooms with a cartway through to yard, now in use as shop and office with accommodation over. 1884 (datestone), some minor C20 alterations. Partly local volcanic trap ashlar, partly Flemish bond brick; Ham Hill and granite dressings; slate roof; brick stacks with corbelled caps. Eclectic style, mainly Tudor and Gothic.

Exterior: partly four storeys, partly three storeys and attic. 2:1:2-bay front, the cartway in the centre. The two left hand bays are grander, built of stone ashlar and gabled to the front with kneelers. The centre and right hand bays are Flemish bond brick with a mansard roof parallel to the street.

The two bay left hand block incorporates the showroom on the ground floor. Left and right plain pilasters frame the front facade below the gable, which is slightly corbelled out. Moulded string at second floor level. On the ground floor the pilasters are granite with carved gabled detail at the top. Recessed six-panel showroom door to the right; plate glass C20 showroom window to the left. On the first floor a canted bay window with a stone slate roof and stone moulded mullion and transom windows, glazed with small panes above the transom. Two second floor two-light stone mullion and transom windows with Ham Hill lintels. In the gable a three-light stone mullioned window with 1884 carved on the deep Ham Hill lintel. The two left hand bays have similar framing with plain pilasters, here in brick, with a corbelled parapet with Ham Hill stone decoration and a Ham Hill sill band at second floor level. Ground floor altered to C20 plate glass shop window. Original first floor oriel of an Arts and Crafts character with a hipped tiled roof with coved eaves, a roughcast corbel and moulded oak mullion and transom windows with stained glass above the transom. Two first floor casements (reglazed in the C20) with Ham Hill lintels with keyblocks. Two gabled attic dormers with bargeboards and C20 windows. The centre bay contains the cartway with a gabled granite pilaster to the right, matching the left hand one, and a granite lintel carved with the name of the firm. First floor window is a two-light transomed casement with a stone lintel with keyblock; similar window above reglazed with a C20 casement; attic dormer to match the others.

Interior: Not inspected but may retain features of interest.

Dart and Francis were the contractors for some houses in the Crediton area and a number of C19 Devon churches designed by national architects, including St Davids in Exeter by Caröe. They continued to provide ecclesiastical fittings on a national scale until the 1980s.

Listing NGR: SS8317200334