13, The Quay

DARTMOUTH

SX874510 THE QUAY 673-1/8/261 (West side) 14/09/49 No.13 (Formerly Listed as: THE QUAY Nos.12 AND 13)

GV II*

Merchant's house, now a shop with flats above. Probably 1639 on land leased to Edward Spurway, with later C17, C19 and C20 modernisations. Mixed construction; thick party walls of local stone rubble, exposed walls of plastered timber-framing; stone rubble stack with C19 brick chimneyshaft; slate roof. PLAN: Built end onto The Quay with right (north) side wall onto Duke Street. One-room plan with stairway to rear. Stack in left party wall shared with No.12 (qv). The C17 house had main entrance from Duke Street behind the shop. EXTERIOR: 3 storeys with attics; one-window range. Superficially it is late C19, but C17 structure indicated by jettied upper floors. End of the stone party wall, the left side wall, corbels out to carry the jetties. It is plastered but a hoodmould just below the corbelling for the second-floor jetty indicates the survival of a date plaque. Ground floor has a C20 shop front which returns onto Duke Street with a canted corner (upper structure supported by an iron column). Recessed front doorway contains good bottom-panelled glazed door with large oval of glazing bars. C20 windows above, all 3-lights, casements to the first floor and sashes without glazing bars above. Second-floor jetty carried on a series of large shaped timber brackets and bottom corner of the bressummer carved with an unusual version of bead-and-reel, early for 1639. Plain tall gable. Duke Street return contains C20 windows without glazing bars. INTERIOR: All carpentry hidden behind C19 and C20 plaster and fireplaces blocked but, apart from the first-floor structure, the C17 house is probably well-preserved. Late C17 stair from first to second floor has closed string, panelled square newel posts, moulded flat handrail and large turned balusters. First-floor landing also has a late C17 timber segmental arch with keystone through the party wall connecting with No.12 (qv). Second floor not available for inspection, but in the attic the bottoms of the principals of probably original 3-bay roof structure shows. HISTORY: Corner house, probably built as right-hand house of a pair with No.12 (qv). This is one of a group of merchants' houses built on reclaimed land in a Town Corporation-backed scheme to reclaim land for housing and expand the port facilities with the New Quay. This began in 1585, and by the second phase, in the 1630s, this was the most fashionable part of the town, and the surviving C17 houses here are amongst the best merchants' houses of their period in Devon. (Freeman, Ray: Dartmouth and its Neighbours: Phillimore: 1990-: P.76-83).

Listing NGR: SX8779251389