West View

West View is a house and shop located on The Strand in Barnstaple, likely dating from the 17th century or earlier, with possible enlargement in the 18th century. The building has solid, roughcast walls made of stone rubble, a front range roof that is slated, and rear ranges that are pantiled. There is no chimney visible from the street. The layout consists of three single-depth ranges, although the interior arrangement has been significantly altered.

The building is two storeys high and features a one-window range that was remodeled in the late 19th or early 20th century. The ground storey includes shop windows, while the upper storey has a canted bay window that is off-centre to the right. The right-hand side wall, which is exposed to a side passage, displays early or mid-19th century sashes in the middle range, including an 8-paned sash in the ground storey and two sashes with four full panes and marginal quarter panes in the upper storey.

Inside, there are few exposed features on the ground storey, but there is a heavy, plain upper-floor beam in the rear room and a fireplace with a 19th-century marble surround and patterned tiles in the right-hand rear corner of the middle range. The upper floor and roof structure have not been inspected.

Historical notes indicate that old photographs show a chimney on the right-hand gable of the front range, and the front originally had two ordinary sash windows in the upper storey. The owner mentions that title deeds dating back to the time of Charles II describe the building as a former Customs House, although a map from 1843 indicates that a different building further south was used for this purpose. The modest scale of West View, situated in an area of Barnstaple that underwent significant rebuilding in the 18th and 19th centuries, along with the substantial thickness of the walls separating the ranges, suggests that it is indeed a building from the 17th century or earlier. It is likely that there are interesting features concealed beneath the plaster, as well as possibly an early roof structure.