Rose Of Torridge

House, now restaurant and offices, at No. 6 Rose of Torridge, Bideford.

Built in the early or mid-17th century, possibly as a remodelling of an earlier structure, with alterations dating to the 19th century and a 20th-century addition at the rear. The building is constructed with solid rendered walls, with stone rubble visible internally on the ground-storey left side-wall and adjacent rear wall. The front of the third storey may be timber-framed. The roofs are pantiled; originally there were probably three roofing-spans at right-angles to the quay, but the right-hand span has been replaced by a flat roof. There are no chimneys. The building follows a double-depth plan and is three rooms wide.

The three-storey façade presents a three-window range. The top storey is jettied and finished with three triangular gablets corresponding to the original roofing-spans behind. The ground and second storeys have a pilaster at each end; these may be a 19th-century addition, though they could represent the ends of the side-walls with a timber-framed front wall that was rebuilt in brick. At the top of each pilaster, beneath the jetty, is a large foliated corbel, probably dating to the 19th century.

The ground storey features a late 19th- or early 20th-century canted display window at each end. The central entrance is flanked by piers with moulded capitals and contains two angled doors recessed within a lobby, each with a solid moulded panel at the bottom and a glazed upper part with margin-panes. A continuous entablature runs above both display windows and the entrance. The second storey contains three wooden mid-19th-century canted bay windows with sashes: four-paned sashes in the centre and two-paned ones at the sides, all with margin-panes. The third storey has mid- or late 20th-century three-light wooden casement windows with transom-lights.

The right side-wall, visible from the public alley, has 20th-century wooden casement windows in the upper storeys; those in the second storey are fitted with glazing-bars. Two short ground-storey windows have ogee-moulded wooden mullions, each of four lights. The left-hand window retains the three original centre mullions and the left end-mullion, but the remainder, including both sill and lintel, are 20th-century replicas. The right-hand window is similarly treated, except that the original lintel with pegged joints survives. At the right-hand end, just beyond the back of the original building, stands a square-headed 17th-century door-frame with ovolo and hollow mouldings, finished at the bottom with large vase-stops; the feet of the jambs have been cut off and replaced in replica.

Interior features are largely obscured by later work and 20th-century beams and joists, together with some imitation panelling. The left-hand second-storey front room retains an original ovolo-moulded ceiling-beam with no visible stops and a rear square-headed door-frame with ovolo mouldings and elaborated scroll-stops. In the lobby outside is a matching door-frame with a 20th-century door opening into the left-hand rear room. The left-hand roof-span contains old trusses with collar-beams and purlins; the middle roof-span is not accessible. Two recesses in the left side-wall may be blocked windows, suggesting the building was originally free-standing.

Despite its alterations, this is a rare example in Devon of a high-class early post-medieval town house, likely to contain original fireplaces, partitions (possibly panelled) and door-frames presently concealed by later plastering and boarding.

According to W.H. Rogers, the building was erected in 1633 at the rear end of a garden belonging to a house in Allhalland Street. Wood's 1842 plan shows it as three separate properties marked 'Western'. By 1864 it had become the Newfoundland Inn, and was subsequently renamed The Old Ship Tavern. Historic photographs show it with a very high parapet that wholly concealed the roof-gables.