The Butterwalk

THE BUTTERWALK

No. 10 Duke Street, Dartmouth

A Grade I listed building forming part of the Butterwalk, one of the finest rows of merchants' houses dating from the first half of the 17th century in England. This particular house is dated 1635 and includes the initials of Mark Hawkings. It now functions as a shop and cafeteria with accommodation above.

The building was constructed of mixed materials: stone rubble forms the side and back walls, while the front displays ornate timber-framing with a plastered upper floor. The walk is carried on granite piers. The roof is slate, and the front and back walls contain stone rubble stacks with 20th-century rendered brick chimneyshafts in the left party wall shared with No. 12.

The Butterwalk was built on reclaimed land as part of a scheme that also created the New Quay. The western half was originally leased to William Gurney in 1628, with the eastern half leased to Mark Hawkings. Gurney sold his part to Hawkings in 1635, who completed the entire row by 1640 at a cost of nearly £2,500. The house originally had upper floors connected to No. 8; a blocked doorway in the right party wall indicates this former connection. The row originally extended one house further east, with the arcade originally comprising 13 granite piers, now reduced to 11.

The building suffered severe bomb blast damage in 1943 and underwent major renovation in the 1950s, designed by David Nye and Partners of Westminster and built by PW Wilkins and Sons Ltd of Torquay.

The plan is one room wide and two rooms deep with a side passage along the right (east) side. A 19th-century winder stair rises just back from the front door. The second floor shows the position of the original newel stair further back, which would have opened onto a first-floor landing. Between the front and back rooms on the first floor is a small unlit and unheated room.

Externally, the building presents three storeys and an attic with a one-window first-floor and two-window second-floor range. The ornate jettied timber-framed front forms part of the unified Butterwalk facade (Nos 6–12 even). The first floor oversails the Butterwalk and is supported on a carved bressummer resting on an arcade of granite piers with moulded capitals. The blocks beneath are carved with geometric and heraldic motifs, one dated 1635.

The original doorway to the right of the recessed mid-20th-century shop front has a large frame with multiple mouldings and ornate carved stops, containing a contemporary panelled door on wrought-iron strap hinges. The first floor displays exposed timber-framing with a central original oriel window featuring eight forward lights with moulded mullions and sill. The corner posts are carved, with supporting brackets carved as animals. The internal turned centre-post has a carved capital. The windows contain iron casements and rectangular panes of leaded glass. Largely original moulded small-panel framing flanks the oriel, with the faces of the original timbers carved with strapwork patterns and guilloche. The end posts on the party walls are carved as pairs of Ionic pilasters on pedestals under carved brackets supporting the second-floor jetty; one is carved as Samson and the Lion. The upper jetty has a carved fascia including Mark Hawkings's initials. Above this is plastered work. The second floor has two oriels, smaller versions of the first-floor example, projecting from a continuous row of mullioned windows, now blocked. The attic contains a pair of 20th-century twelve-pane sashes under a projecting gable supported on a pair of large carved timber brackets carved as emblems of plenty.

The rear elevation is painted stone rubble beneath a slate-hung gable and contains mid-20th-century twelve-pane sash windows with glazing bars. The rear left return wall is plastered timber-frame containing some original 17th-century oak mullioned windows.

The interior is of exceptionally high quality and well-preserved. Original features include a section of the pine passage screen and panelled partitions on the first floor, some possibly of late 17th-century date. The first-floor front parlour retains its original panelling with a carved frieze incorporating the date 1634 flanked by pegasi. A granite fireplace with carved lintel features imported Dutch brick cheeks and back, with good plasterwork overmantel depicting the Pentecost. The ornamental plaster ceiling employs a single rib design with bosses and angle sprays; the hollow rib pattern ceiling in the middle room features cherubs. The original newel stair survives from the second floor to the attic rooms. Plain carpentry is exposed on the upper floors. Other 17th-century features are likely hidden. The roof was not inspected.

The Butterwalk was originally backed onto the river when first built.