4, Cross Street

House, now offices and hairdresser's salon, at Barnstaple. The building is 19th century, but incorporates a 16th or 17th century house at the north end. It has solid rendered walls, probably of brick and stone, with the rear gable of the front part slate-hung. The roofs are slated, except for the 16th or 17th century part fronting Paige's Lane, which has pantiles on the rear western slope. Red brick chimneys are positioned on the rear gable of the wing of the 19th century building and on the left western side wall of the 16th or 17th century building.

The plan consists of three parts. At the front is a mid or late 19th century range with an early or mid 19th century rear wing fronting Paige's Lane; behind that again is the 16th or 17th century range, with a parallel range of similar date alongside part of it to the left (west).

The front part is three-storeyed; the remainder is two-storeyed. A three-window range faces Cross Street, with the right-hand window placed on the slightly inset splayed corner. The ground storey has a late 19th century shop front extending on to part of the Paige's Lane frontage, with an entablature and dentilled cornice. The second-storey windows have eared architraves, the left-hand pair with keyblocks. A raised band runs at second-floor level. Two canted bay windows occupy the third storey, that to the left set in a segmental-headed recess. The front is finished with a gable, made lop-sided to fit the splayed corner.

The return front to Paige's Lane has a window in each of ground and second storeys, the lower one blocked. The rear wing to the right of this is a three-window range. To the left of the ground storey is a large early or mid 19th century shop window with three rows of twelve panes, flanking pilasters and entablature, with sashes in the upper storey.

The 16th or 17th century range to the right has a similar shop window, but with three rows of ten panes and no pilasters. To the left of it are two windows of similar date with fixed nine-pane sashes, a transom-light having been inserted into the left-hand window. A 20th century door is at the right-hand end. Upper-storey windows are all 20th century.

Interior: the 19th century building has little of interest, but the 16th or 17th century ranges retain early roofs and probably other features at present plastered or boarded in. The eastern range, adjoining Paige's Lane, has a five-bay roof with four arch-braces. The remaining trusses are late medieval with cambered collars and slots for one tier of butt purlins; the arch-braces are chamfered with open spandrels. Existing purlins, also old, lie on the backs of trusses; the feet of trusses and braces have been cut off and replaced by 20th century wood brackets. The roof may have been re-used, though at an early date, as the storey heights and positioning of the first-floor beams suggest at least a 16th or 17th century building. The shorter range on the west side has a doorway with chamfered wood frame at the north end. Its roof has plain, old trusses with through purlins.

Historical note: the front part of No.4 was Corporation property, leased in 1630 to Edward Eastman, merchant, on preferential terms in consideration of his spending £40 in 'new building' it. His successor in 1636, Nicholas Cooke, had also laid out 'great cost and charges' in building, but it is not clear whether this included the earlier parts of the present building. In 1704 the rooms were listed in detail to distinguish the freehold from the leasehold parts, and it may be that the property adjoining the freehold section, the 'little house now or late in the possession of one Leming Dickingson next on the North parte', was the one with the arch-braced roof. The bonded warehouse at the rear of the Paige's Lane frontage, mentioned in the former list description, has been demolished.