43, HIGH STREET (See details for further address information)

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 8 November 2024 to amend details in the description and to reformat the text to current standards

SX 8060 SW 1/67A

HIGH STREET (Butterwalk) No 43

(Formerly listed as Nos 43 and 45)

7.1.52.

GV I

C14 or early C15, two storey merchant's house of "deux corps de batiments" type. This is the best preserved late medieval house in Totnes. The front (shop) bay was rebuilt and heightened in the later C16, probably by the Bogan family, and the rear premises were remodelled at the same time. An original detached kitchen was joined to the house in the C17, and the former small court infilled. Front refaced earlier C19. Three storeys. Two windows. Modern slate roof. Timber-framed slate-hung front with coved eaves cornice. Two paired second floor sash windows with architraves. Architraved first floor sash windows with side lights. Ground floor loggia over pavement carried on Tuscan colums bearing entablature. Entrance to side passage on west side. Masonry party walls C19 shop windows with colunnette mullions.

Rear premises retain C14/15 moulded bressumer to first floor on west side, and remains of 10-light mullioned window below to former medieval hall on ground floor. Hall window with moulded surround and traces of wrought iron stay bars ; cut by C19 two light, sash windows. Hall with fine, open C14/15 fireplace with attached columns to jambs with foliated caps and vase-type bases carrying moulded granite corbels and sloping hood with mantle carried round to form sconce brackets; moulded hearth surround. Former medieval chamber above hall retains remains of similar but smaller fireplace.

Former hall with remains of moulded ceiling beams masked by Elizabethan, decorated plaster ceiling with ribwork, and beams enriched with strapwork and tulip motifs. Ground floor doorway from hall former gallery with C15/C16 wooden, four-centred arched head with chamfered surround and original door hooks. Centre bay of house with remains of C16 newel staircase. First floor front room (former Elizabethan fore-hall) with decorated plaster ceiling with ribwork and medallions inscribed E.B. and W.B. referring to Elizabeth and William Bogan, mayor of Totnes. Good contemporary chimney piece of Beere stone with low arched head in square opening with shields in spandrels; overmantel with lozenges and medallions in strapwork with rosettes; relieving arch over. (of similar C16 fireplace at No 11, High Street). Ground floor shop retains chamfered ceiling beams with stopped ends, as does the present kitchen on the site of the former small court and gallery. The square medieval kitchen block of random Devonian limestone rubble survives much altered, with later staircase, openings and roof. Grade I for medieval remains. (M Laithwaite).

Listing NGR: SX8011360462