Chain House

MODBURY BROWNSTON STREET SX 6451-6551 (west side) 7/80 No 8 (Chain House)

GV II*

House in row. Early C18 street frontage, incorporating earlier cottages behind. Coursed rubble, slate roof. A good street frontage block with deep and narrow back wing possibly on site of earlier cottages. To street is 2-storeys and attic with 4 windows, all good 12-pane sashes to voussoirs with projecting painted keystone, bull-nose Stone cills; in bay 2 a 6-panel fielded door with glazing-bar overlight, in moulded architrave and with flat cantilevered canopy to moulded edge. Four pedimented dormers with 9-pane sashes. Plinth, flat mid string course, modillion wood cornice to secret gutter; decorative hopper-heads to lead down-pipes; brick stacks to each gable. Long back wing in 2 storeys has slate-hung upper level with 4:12:4:12:24-pane, sashes above a 6-panel door, arched casement with Y-tracery, large 4-light sash, further door and two sashes; the end gable, left with rounded corner, has a scatter of pigeon openings. Back of wing has central very broad eaves stack gabled back to roof slope. Interior: ground floor left rood has C18 fireplace surround with egg and dart embellish- ment, rococo scrolls and overmantel with 3 masks. Right-hand room with fielded panelling, modillion cornice and fireplace with unusual Ionic 'consoles', dentilled mantel shelf, good door. Main stair is dog-leg through 2 floors, 3 hoisted balusters per tread. First floor back roam has recess with thistle and lion head brackets; similar recess in front room, left, also bolection mould fire surround. Front, right, good C18 fire surround with eared architrave. Back wing has C17 A-frame roof structure, some very wide floor boards, many contemporary (C18) doors. Here also a second staircase enclosed in panelling, and an C18 cupboard with a pair of small-paned doors; one room with moulded overmantel with keystone. This was clearly an important clothier's house; the name is said to derive from chains along the front of the house, within living memory, and and thought to mark the place where tolls were taken on market days. (Modbury: Our Inheritance, Modbury Local History Society, n.d).

Listing NGR: SX6586851685