20, Foss Street

DARTMOUTH

SX874510 FOSS STREET 673-1/8/143 (East side) 23/10/72 No.20

GV II

Shop with house above, rear block has flats above the shop. Rear block is probably C17 with C19 alterations; front block probably has C17 core and is older than late C19 front, some C20 modernisation. Mixed construction; main window fronts are of plastered timber-framing, others are of stone rubble; stack in party wall with rendered chimneyshafts and some old pots; slate roofs. PLAN: Front block house 2 rooms deep. Rear block was originally one or 2 rooms each floor. Layout altered C19 and C20. EXTERIOR: 3 storeys, rear block with attics. Late C19 two-window front. Partly-modernised timber shop front with recessed central doorway, now open under plain overlight to central passage back to C20 doorway. Fascia with large ornamental end brackets and moulded cornice with cast-iron crest which is carried round base of first-floor oriel window, canted with moulded timber cornice and containing large front horned 4-pane sash window; 2 smaller sashes on second floor. Plain eaves to hipped roof. Rear block faces north with irregular fenestration; some undistinguished C20 casements but also several C19 twelve-pane sashes (including a row of 3 at first-floor level), pair of 3/6-pane sashes at second-floor level and gable has an 8-pane sash. The rear of the front-block side wall also contains 12-pane sashes to the upper floors. INTERIOR: Most of the ground floor shows the results of C19 and C20 modernisations, but the rear of the right shop is under the rear block and here joists of large scantling and C17 appearance are exposed. HISTORY: Foss Street marks the line of a medieval dam, which included a tidal mill. The mill pool was filled in and developed around 1820-1830, although houses were built along the Foss from the C17 onwards.

Listing NGR: SX8771451462