No 55 Including Walls Of Rear Plot

House with shop at No. 55 Fore Street, Buckfastleigh. The main block dates from the late 18th or early 19th century, with a rear wing of around 1700. A late 19th-century shop front was added, which was formerly used as a bakery.

The building is three storeys high with an asymmetrical front of two windows. The ground floor is probably of stone, with the upper storeys slate-hung. The roof is hipped at the left end and gabled at the right end. The rear wing is partly stone rubble and partly timber-framed and rendered, with an end stack at its junction with a further building.

The main front is dominated by a high-quality late 19th-century shop front, identical to one in Moretonhampstead, featuring plate-glass windows set between fluted cast-iron columns with moulded bases and decorative foliage capitals that cant inward toward a recessed glazed shop door with a low panel and deep overlight. Above the windows is a lattice ironwork ventilation grille. The cartway to the left of the shop has a 19th-century plank door with strap hinges and an integral wicket. Above the shop front are four sash windows: two on the first floor and two on the second floor, all 16-pane and dating to the late 18th or early 19th century.

The rear elevation has two large 20-pane sash windows of around 1800 with brick arches and a 20th-century doorway. The three-storey rear wing is partly clad in corrugated iron on the courtyard side, following fire damage.

The rear elevation facing the courtyard is timber-framed with a deep jetty or pentice supported on two stone rubble piers that run at right angles to the main block and flank a narrow rear courtyard. The pentice beams are chamfered, as are the axial joists. The framing of the outer wall above is substantial, though fixed with nails. The rear face of this wing is stone rubble.

Beyond the rear wing stands a small two-storey five-bay building of stone rubble, possibly originally a cottage or semi-industrial structure, though in poor repair. It was missing most of its slate roof at the time of survey in 1992. The courtyard elevation has two ground-floor windows with timber lintels, two ground-floor doorways and two loft doors; the rear wall has one ground-floor window and one loft door. The roof contains five trusses with bolted collars and halved apexes. The interior retains a slate floor and a first-floor fireplace that backs into the rear wing's stack. The upper-storey floor was missing at the time of survey.

The ground floor of the rear wing is plainly finished with 20th-century wall linings. Upper floors are also plain, with a small fireplace that was not fully accessible at survey.

The rear plot is long and narrow, running down to the River Mardle. Stone rubble walls extend along the entire rear boundary. This arrangement represents an important example of medieval rear urban plot development, with the pentice arrangement providing dry access to what was presumably some form of industrial use in the smaller rear building.