Coronation Boathouse and adjacent store building

Coronation Boathouse and Adjacent Store Building

This is a boathouse of 1937, built to commemorate the coronation of King George VI, designed by J-B Sebastian Comper for Commander C E Evans, together with an adjacent stone building of probable 18th-century date.

The boathouse is constructed of brick with steel and timber floors and timber roof structure. The walls are faced in local rubble stone to the ground floor and render to the first floor. The hipped roof is thatched in reed, with timber details and fixings including jetty mouldings and two painted ships' figureheads. An external staircase at the west end is of cast concrete. Window frames are metal with leaded panes and slate cills. Window lintels are timber planks laid on edge. The interior has a poured concrete ground floor with a boarded first-floor loft.

The building is oriented on an east-west axis, is of two storeys, and largely follows an open rectangular plan with an external stair to the first floor at the west end.

The exterior displays a Tudor vernacular style with a jettied rendered first floor below an oversailing thatched roof, set above a rubble stone ground floor. The moulded timber jetty is a prominent visual feature. Timber dragon beams and braces extend to each quayside jetty corner, each with an attached painted ship's figurehead. The east gable end, facing the approach from the village path, has a double central opening with sliding doors from a sloping stone slip. The opening features a cambered head of stone voussoirs. To the right is a stone plaque reading: THIS BOATHOUSE WAS ERECTED BY/ LT COMDR CHARLES E EVANS RNVR/ AO DNI 1937 TO COMMEMORATE THE/ ACCESSION OF HIS MOST GRACIOUS/ MAJESTY KING GEORGE THE SIXTH./ JBS COMPER ARCHITECT PEARN BROS. BUILDERS. To the first floor is a four-light casement with timber hood mould extending to the eaves at each side. Above the mould is a timber niche containing a gold painted Royal Crown and Lion, with 1937 inscribed below.

The quayside front has two sets of tripartite casements to each side of central plank doors. At the corners at each end are painted ships' figureheads attached to a timber brace below the jetty dragon beam. The figurehead to the left has a small wooden plaque noting its history. Five sets of casements to the first floor, alternately of three and two lights, break through the thatched eaves.

The west end has a door to the ground floor and a four-light casement and door to the first floor. The door is served by an external concrete stair with concrete balustrade to the right side. Behind the stair is a plank door to a cloakroom. Cast-iron rainwater goods are fixed to the wall.

The interior features sliding timber doors at the west end leading into the open-plan ground floor, with a small partitioned-off area at the west end. The first-floor structure has exposed beams secured by steel plates and machine-sawn joists, with some steel reinforcement above the ledged double-leaf plank doors to the north (quayside) wall. A timber ladder stair to the first floor is placed laterally against the centre of the back wall. The first floor has a partitioned workshop to the east end and a cloakroom with door to the exterior staircase to the west end. The west end is partially lofted but the roof structure, including six roof trusses with metal straps and bolts to the collars, is otherwise exposed. Window frames have metal fitments.

The adjacent stone building is square on plan with double braced and ledged doors to the east elevation and a casement to the north, overlooking the estuary. The hipped roof is thatched in reed. The roof structure is mostly constructed of unworked timbers although there are two machine-sawn collars used to store boating materials above. The roof is partly supported on cob infill above the stone walls. In the lower section of the north and south walls are square voids possibly for former shelving or floors.

Both buildings stand on a stone quay that was at least partly rebuilt in the 1930s.