Seven Stars Public House

SX874510 673-1/8/6823/10/72

DARTMOUTH CHURCH CLOSE (South side) Seven Stars Public House

GII Includes: No.8 Seven Stars Public House SMITH STREET.

Public house, made by joining together two small houses, one onto Church Close and another onto Smith Street. Late C16/early C17 house onto Smith Street, probably C17 house onto Church Close, both with substantial later alterations. Mixed construction; stone rubble side walls, the western one apparently much rebuilt, and rest is plastered timber-framing, lightly blocked as ashlar; stacks with rendered chimneyshafts; slate roof.

PLAN: originally two houses, back to back: both were small houses end onto the street with stacks in their eastern party wall.

EXTERIOR: three storeys with attics; narrow one-window Church Close frontage is essentially late C18/early C19 with C20 alterations. Ground-floor windows are C20 casements with leaded diamond-pane effect (similar to the windows on the other two sides), that to left probably blocking the original doorway off Church Close. Canted bay above through first and second floors containing front pairs of twelve-pane sashes with narrow side four-pane sashes. Third-floor casement with truncated pyramid head under half-hipped end to the roof. Western side wall (to left) an irregular three-window range, all C20 windows, with C20 doorway left of centre (including a couple of architectural fragments from the church over the lintel). Narrow south front onto Smith Street: here end of right (eastern) side wall is exposed and corbels out to carry the deep first-floor jetty which indicates the survival of some of the late C16/early C17 fabric behind the plaster. Oak doorway to right is a late C16/early C17 low Tudor arch with chamfered surround and sunk spandrels. All C20 windows this side. Hipped roof on deep eaves with plastered soffit which is carried round the left end.

INTERIOR: Largely the result of C19 and C20 modernisations. There is a great deal of exposed timber on the ceilings, some of which has been introduced.

Listing NGR: SX8777251310