Castle Chambers

BARNSTAPLE

SS5533SE CASTLE STREET 684-1/7/88 (North East side) 31/12/73 No.26 Castle Chambers

GV II

House, now used as offices. Late C17, perhaps with an earlier core and several phases of later alteration and improvement. Rendered mass wall construction except rear elevation where the first floor end wall and the stable are timber-framed, stable framing quite substantial. Slate roofs, gabled at ends; stacks with C19 or C20 brick shafts. Late C17 town-house plan with 2 parallel blocks, end on to the road, cartway to left, shared with No.25 (qv). The right-hand (SE) block is 3 rooms deep, heated from right lateral stacks. The left-hand block is one-and-a-half rooms deep with a rear courtyard and stable block (now demolished) - this may originally have been part of the domestic accommodation. Substantial open-well stair behind front rooms, parlour to first-floor front right. Position of original kitchen unclear but may have been the right-hand centre room. Mass wall between blocks suggests possibility of 2 earlier urban plots re-used for larger house. 2 storeys. Asymmetrical 1:2-window range with a M roof, the right hand block set back. C20 half-glazed door to left, ground floor has 3 C20 paired 2-pane sash windows, first floor has 2 C20 8 over one-pane sash windows. Overlooking the courtyard the house has 2 late C17 wood mullioned first floor windows, one ovolo-moulded externally, flat-faced internally, originally 7 lights, all but 3 lights now blocked or missing, but lintel survives. The other is a 3-light flat-faced mullioned window, the mullions bead-moulded on the inside, glazed with C20 square leaded panes. INTERIOR: retains late C17 and later historic features. The right-hand block has chamfered cross beams to the ground floor and a good late C17 bolection-moulded chimneypiece to first floor front right. Open-well staircase with heavy turned balusters has been very repaired and possibly rebuilt in the early C20 but retains some original balusters. One jamb of an ovolo-moulded door frame survives on the ground floor; one C16 panelled door with moulded strips and HL hinges on the first floor (probably not in situ). Ground-floor front left room has been refurbished in the first half of the C18 with a 2-panel door, fielded panel wall cupboard and C18 timber chimneypiece. Other features may survive behind later wall plaster. Roof has been heavily repaired in the last 5 years (information from the owner) but appears to late A-frame trusses with lap-jointed collars. A good example of a late C17 town house with many features and much of its original plan intact.

Listing NGR: SS5569033166