Charles And Sons Including Back Yard Wall Adjoining North

MORETONHAMPSTEAD THE SQUARE (centre), SX 7586 Moretonhampstead 8/175 No. 3 Charles and Sons - 1.7.85 including back yard wall adjoining north GV II

House with shop premises. C18 or early C19 with late C19 shop front. Granite stuccoed with ashlar joint lining, exposed granite at rear. Thatched roof with half-hipped gable ends. Rendered chimneystack at left-hand end. Internal lateral stack at rear right with brick shaft. Rectangular on plan with rounded rear left corner. The original internal plan is uncertain, but it was possibly a pair of 2-room double depth cottages with a late C19 shop taking up the ground floor of the right-hand cottage, the shop now extended in the front room to left. Alternatively it was one house originally with a shop inserted in late C19 and the doorway to the domestic accommodation moved to left. 2 storeys and attic. Symmetrical 3-window range. First floor late C19 4-light sashes in earlier moulded frames. Similar ground floor left-hand window with unmoulded frame. Early C19 6-panel door to left of centre. Victorian double- fronted shop to right and centre with fascia and moulded cornice, original glazed double doors with overlight and flanking canted windows, fluted mullions with fleur-de-lis capitals and bulbous acanthus bases. Thatched gabled dormer to right of centre. First floor right-hand window at rear has reused ovolo moulded wooden lintel. Interior: rough chamfered ceiling cross-beams in shop. The rest of the interior including the roof was not inspected. Including rear yard wall. Tall granite rubble wall at splayed angle enclosing back yard and facing street at rear. Externally this building has changed little since C19 and it retains a fine Victorian shop front. It is unusual in town centres for thatched roofs not to have been replaced by another material. This building is therefore an important element in the town centre of Moretonhampstead.

Listing NGR: SX7533686059