18, Buttgarden Street

This is a house and veterinary surgery, built in 1900 by RT Hookway of Bideford. The structure has solid rendered walls and a slate roof, punctuated by three red-brick chimneys on the ridge – one central and one at either end; the two right-hand chimneys have round pots. The building is three stories high, with a broad front of two-window range. Most windows are three-light sashes with horns, with the second-story windows being flat-topped canted bays. To the right of the ground storey, the design is altered to include a cart entrance with a single-light window alongside it. The cart entrance has a four-paned fanlight and recessed double plank doors. A six-panelled door with a fanlight, containing coloured leaded glass, is located at the extreme left-hand end, accompanied by a patterned iron gate designed to be used when the door is open. All ground-storey openings feature segmental arches with moulded archivolts, which continue across the front as a bandcourse. The windows have sashes with horns; the right-hand window and the middle light of the left-hand window have margin panes. The second-story bays have rounded bases and are finished with entablatures, where the cornices extend across the front, topped with a blocking course that rises to a point over the middle light. The third-story windows have wooden mullions and transoms, with heads and a bandcourse matching those of the ground storey, incorporating keystones. Above each third-story window is a triangular gable with moulded bargeboards, breaking through the prominent eaves cornice, which is coved at each end. Sills on all three stories are connected by broad bands. Four square rainwater pipes are positioned at either end of the front and in the centre, each with decorative clamps and heads. A veterinary surgeon, Frances Parsons, occupied the premises in 1870. By 1902, he was succeeded by William Ascott, MRCVS, who commissioned RT Hookway & Sons to erect a "dwelling house and horse repository" in Buttgarden Street, for which tenders were sought in 1900. The building occupies a prominent location at the entrance to a well-preserved street of 18th and 19th-century buildings and is included for group value.