No 7 And Attached Walls, Railings And Gate Piers

No. 7 and Attached Walls, Railings and Gate Piers, North Street, Ilminster

House with mid 17th-century origins, substantially refronted and remodelled in the early 18th century, with further extensions and alterations around 1810 and 1860. The building comprises a main east-facing block, a service wing to the north and an early 18th-century wing to the rear (south), connected by a 19th-century stairhall.

The street facade (east) facing North Street is built of dressed Moolham stone and presents 2 storeys in a 4-window range. The dominant feature is a central right-of-centre 6-panel door with raised-and-fielded panels beneath a shallow overlight of 4 panes and a blind window above it. Flanking the door are 3/6-pane sashes with horns, their moulded architraves topped with cyma-moulded keystones; to the far left is a blind window on both floors. All windows and doors have moulded painted architraves. The sashes to the service wing may originally have been cross-windows. Wrought-iron brackets support the gutters.

The garden front (south) is rendered in stucco with plain pilasters to the sides and below a ridge stack to the left-of-centre. The irregular 6-window range shows a variety of glazing patterns reflecting different periods. An attic gable at the right of the main east-facing block contains a small 19th-century two/two-pane sash within a wide early 18th-century architrave with cyma-moulded keystone. The floor below has mid 19th-century one/one-pane sashes with margin panes; the first-floor window features a Regency-style balcony with a swept hipped canopy and open-work frieze. To the inside-right is a wide early 18th-century glazed door with an early 18th-century doorcase having a moulded segmental pediment and cyma-moulded keystone supported by fluted Corinthian pilasters. First-floor windows are predominantly 8/8-pane sashes, except for a central light which is 1/1-pane; a late 19th-century 2/2-pane sash and an 8/8-pane sash occupy the left portion. The roof to the main building and left (south) wing is slate; the service wing has a pantile roof. Brick chimney stacks rise throughout.

Internally, the hall entrance from the garden features a circa 1810 elliptical arch. To the left is a small early 18th-century panelled room with chamfered beams and pine raised-and-fielded panels with bolection-moulding; this room has a moulded box cornice and cyma-moulded fire-surround. Below lies an 18th-century cellar with stone steps, a flagstone floor, segmental-arched barrel-vaulting and garden access. Behind the panelled room is a kitchen containing a circa 1810 dresser. The room to the right of the hall has circa 1860 dado and skirting. The hall connects to an open-well open-string staircase with reeded balusters, a swept wreathed mahogany handrail and wreathed curtail step. In the north-west corner of the main block is part of a circa 1710 staircase with closed string and turned balusters. The attic of the main block retains repositioned pine panelling and original 17th-century A-frame roof trusses. The rear left (south) wing features an early 18th-century four-bay butt-purlin roof structure with straight principal rafters.

A brick boundary wall with Ham Hill stone capping encloses the garden to the south along North Street, connecting with the wall piers to The Vicarage, Court Barton. At its middle, the wall curves inward toward gate piers with banded rustication, moulded cornices and pyramidal caps, flanking a 20th-century gate. The wall supports railings with square-section alternate loop-and-rail design.