The Butterwalk

THE BUTTERWALK, No. 6

One of a row of merchants' houses, now a shop and the Dartmouth Museum, with accommodation above. The row is dated 1635 and 1640, with some later 17th-century improvements and various minor later alterations. A major renovation programme was undertaken in the 1950s following severe bomb blast damage in 1943, designed by David Nye and Partners of Westminster, London, with building work by PW Wilkins and Sons Ltd. of Torquay.

The building has mixed construction: stone side and back walls, with an ornate display of timber-framing to the front and a slate-hung upper floor. The walk is carried on granite piers. Stone rubble stacks support chimneyshafts (now with 20th-century rendered brick chimneyshafts) at the front and rear of the right party wall. The roof is of slate.

The plan consists of one room wide and two rooms deep, built end onto the street, with a side passage along the right (eastern) side. The ground-floor front room has no fireplace, as it was used as a shop. A newel stair in an alcove in the right party wall rises in the centre of the first floor, where there was originally a small unheated room between front and back rooms. Now there is a corridor to the first floor of No. 8.

The exterior presents three storeys and an attic with a three-window range. The ornate jettied timber-framed front forms part of a unified frontage comprising Nos. 6–12 (even), the houses of the Dartmouth Butterwalk. The first floor oversails the walk and is supported on a carved bressummer on an arcade of granite piers with moulded capitals. The blocks beneath are carved with geometric and heraldic motifs, one dated 1640. The recessed shop front is mid-20th-century. The first floor features exposed timber-framing with a central plastered section (rebuilt in the 20th century) containing three 12-pane horned sashes; three more appear on the second floor and one on each floor of the right-hand return. Original small-panel framing on either side has faces carved with strapwork patterns and guilloche. End posts on the party walls are carved as pairs of Ionic pilasters on pedestals under carved brackets supporting the second-floor jetty, though the right end now has only a single pilaster with no bracket. The jetty has a carved fascia. Above is slate-hanging. The original gable was demolished, but the present timber eaves cornice, carved with a bead-and-reel pattern, is probably the original frieze-board. The gabled rear elevation is plastered and mostly original; painted masonry under slate-hanging contains various 20th-century windows with glazing bars. The first-floor oriel is supported by reused 17th-century brackets carved as griffin-like creatures.

The interior is of exceptionally high quality and well-preserved. Original features include the newel stair, which rises round a pine mast-like post, pine ovolo-moulded plank-and-muntin screens, small-field panelling, and ornamental plaster ceilings with single and hollow rib designs. The small closet on the first-floor landing with its grille of tiny turned posts may be secondary. The front parlour has an overmantel featuring the arms of Charles II, who was entertained here in 1671. This room is lined with original panelling except on the front, where there is late 17th- or early 18th-century large-field panelling, associated with the demolition of the original front oriel window and its replacement by the present three-window arrangement. The rear parlour has introduced panelling and includes a curious small stone window in a curving alcove, which appears to have served a second stair. Other 17th-century features are probably hidden. The upper floors and roof were not inspected.

The Butterwalk forms a unit of one of the finest rows of merchants' houses dating from the first half of the 17th century in England. It was built on reclaimed land as part of the same scheme which created the New Quay. The western half was leased to William Gurney in 1628 and the eastern half to Mark Hawkings. Both began to build, but in 1635 William Gurney sold his part to Hawkings, who completed the row by 1640 at a cost of nearly £2500. The row originally continued one house further east; the Butterwalk arcade originally had 13 granite piers but now has 11. When originally built, it backed onto the river.