No 15 And Attached Front Railings And Rear Garden Walls

No. 15 and attached front railings and rear garden walls, Friarn Street, Bridgwater

A house built around 1700, of considerable architectural quality and earlier than the nearby Castle Street development. The building is constructed in Flemish bond brick with red headers and yellow stretchers, beneath a steep double-pitched pantile roof with stone coping to the parapet and gables. Brick stacks are positioned to the left gable ends, and three wide Delabole slate steps lead to the front door.

The house follows a double-depth plan and rises three storeys with a semi-basement, presenting a four-window range to the street. The windows are arranged in diminishing heights and are all 6/6-pane sashes in forward frames, set within segmental arches formed of alternating red and yellow bricks. Platbands mark the divisions between floors. The main entrance is particularly fine, featuring a shell hood supported on fretted brackets over a moulded architrave. The right-of-centre door itself has eight raised-and-fielded panels, with small panels to the centre and top below a blind fanlight. The basement window to the left is blocked, whilst those flanking the door contain thick glazing bars. The steep roof pitch, irregular bonding to the parapet wall, and the style of shell hood all suggest that a former eaves cornice has been removed.

The lower two storeys at the rear were substantially altered in the mid-19th century, with the addition of a two-storey verandah featuring a pantile roof. The first floor is supported on cast-iron trellis work, whilst the ground floor has plain poles. The ground beneath is paved with cream ceramic tiles with small black tiles at the corners; flagstones to the right of the area steps are now covered over.

Interior

The stair-hall to the right contains a mid-19th-century open-well open-string staircase with fretted ends, turned balusters, and a swept mahogany rail toward the rear right. The staircase extends into the main hall, flanked by wreathed rails, with a curtail step wreathed to both sides. The rear face of the front door is flat with large L hinges. The door to the front room displays four raised-and-fielded panels.

The front room is lined with raised-and-fielded panelling to the shutters and above and below the dado rail of the front wall, beneath a simple ovolo cornice. A plain square stone fire surround with beaded arrisses is present; a cupboard to the left of the rear wall has two raised-and-fielded panels and H hinges. A mid-19th-century elliptical arch to the right contains an ornamental fanlight.

The room to the rear left was remodelled in the mid-19th century and features a reeded cornice, a large painted fire surround (probably slate), and a wide 2/2-pane sash window with panelled shutters. A small lobby to the rear of the stairs, now used as a kitchen, has a door with three panels to the base and coloured margin panes to the top, opening onto the garden.

On the first floor, the room to the rear left is also mid-19th-century in character, with a reeded cornice, a white marble fire surround, an elliptical-arched recess to the front wall, and a French window onto the balcony.

The staircase continues to the second floor with an original circa 1700 closed string featuring heavier turned balusters, a straight moulded handrail, and square newels. A dog-gate to the second-floor landing has a similar moulded top swept up to the sides, flat balusters corresponding with the profile of the turned ones, and raised H hinges.

The small attic landing serves a narrower staircase and has a double row of balusters over the stair-well. Full-height screen doors, each with three raised-and-fielded panels, allow access for furniture. The attic rooms occupy the top of the A-frame roof; the tie-beams are exposed as steps between the two trusses, and the exposed pegged purlins are at staggered heights. Two cast-iron two-light casement windows on the rear of the front pitch look onto the valley.

The basement is stone-flagged throughout. The kitchen to the left has a raftered, unplastered ceiling and three open fireplaces: one to the front stack and two to the rear stack, the latter with an ornamented surround probably dating from the 19th century. A well just inside the front door has the word 'WELL' cut into a flagstone above it. Brick vaulted ceilings are present to the rear right, to a space to the left in the rear area, and beneath the pavement (probably the coal-hole). The rear window to the basement is a cast-iron three-light casement.

Subsidiary Features

Plain 19th-century railings are attached to the right of the door, with Friarn Chapel to the right protecting a small basement area. A gate to the right leads to the area steps and basement door. Garden-wall-bond walls flank the garden and extend approximately 50 metres to Durleigh Brook.