Beachcroft

BARNSTAPLE

SS5632 LITCHDON STREET 684-1/5/196 (South West side) 31/08/88 No.22 Beachcroft

GV II

House, now health authority offices. 1839. Solid, rendered walls, at least partly of stone rubble. Slated roofs with old brick chimney on each gable of main body of house; porch roof hipped to left. 1 room wide and 2 rooms deep with central staircase, the latter entered through a porch on left side. 2 storeys with semi-basement and garret. 2-window range. Windows have slightly curved heads and contain 8-paned sashes. Moulded board below eaves. Porch to left has round-arched doorway with 6-panelled door and patterned fanlight. Plain sash-window in upper storey. Garden front (visible from Taw Vale and the riverside) has rusticated basement with segmental-headed windows; to left, sash window with 2 upright glazing bars, to right, small-paned wood casement. Upper-storey windows have sashes with 9 panes below and 6 above; in front of each a patterned iron guard-rail. Entrance porch closely similar to reverse side, except that the number of door panels may be different. Right-hand (N) side wall has tall, round-arched stair window with small panes and radial glazing bars in the head. 2 smaller pointed-arched windows with small panes in gable. INTERIOR: porch has dado of decorated papier-mache. Half-glazed inner door with coloured glass margin-panes. Geometrical wood staircase with thin square balusters and shaped step-ends; handrail voluted at the bottom. Stairhall has dado matching that in porch; moulded cornice, foliated chandelier boss, 6-panelled door to rear room, which has panelled shutters, moulded cornice, foliated chandelier boss. Front room sub-divided, section to right has 8-pointed boss. First-floor landing has 6-panelled doors and foliated boss. Rear room has cast-iron Gothic basket-grate; enriched cornice, foliated boss, panelled shutters. Semi-basement, reached by old stone steps from stairhall, has stone-flagged centre passage. Rear room probably former kitchen with fireplace; stone steps up to garden. Wine cellar with vaulted ceiling. Pantry with slate shelves. HISTORICAL NOTE: owners in 1986 had a deed of 1839 describing the house as having been 'lately erected' on Corporation land.

Listing NGR: SS5607232781