7 And 8, New Road

A pair of houses built in the mid-19th century, shortly after 1842. They have solid rendered walls and a hipped slate roof. Chimneys are rendered and located at the front, over the party wall, on the left side wall, and on the rear walls of each house. The houses were originally designed with a double-depth plan, incorporating a central staircase and rear lean-tos. Each house is two storeys high and has a single window, with a doorway to the right of the ground-floor window. The doorways feature round arches, ovolo moulding, and vermiculated keystones topped with high-relief eagles with unfurled wings. They have late 20th-century four-panelled doors. The windows have late 20th-century 6-paned sashes in box frames. A raised band runs above the ground storey, and a deep bracketed eaves cornice is present. The side-wall windows retain their original 6-paned sashes in box frames. Round-arched stair windows have fixed sashes: No. 7 has 14 panes, and No. 8 has 8. The lean-tos have 6-paned Yorkshire sashes. The interiors were not inspected, but the ground storey of No. 7 appears to have been altered; the front room at this level features a foliated chandelier-boss. Area railings have simple pointed uprights and standards with fleur-de-lis finials. The houses were not depicted on Wood’s 1842 Map of Bideford.