16, SELBOURNE PLACE (See details for further address information)

No. 16 Selbourne Place, also known as Townsend House, is a house dating from the late 16th century or early 17th century, which was remodeled and raised in height in the mid 18th century and restored around 1990. The exterior features painted render over cob and rubblestone, with a late 20th-century slate roof at the front and a slate roof at the rear, hipped to the right and gabled to the left. There are brick stacks on the left and rear right. The building has an L-shaped plan, with the rear wing being 16 Selbourne Place. The original front range includes a rear lateral stack to the right, remodeled with a central hall, rear stairs, and rear wing in the 18th century.

The house is two storeys high, with a symmetrical four-window range featuring a 1:2:1 fenestration pattern and a slightly projecting pedimented center. It has rusticated quoins and 20th-century paired and horned 6/6-pane sash windows in forward frames. The two central ranges step forward slightly under a pediment that has an oval window with radiating glazing bars at the apex, above a tall hemispherical-headed niche. The six-panel door is located under a pedimented hood supported by shaped brackets. The rear wing has 20th-century windows.

Inside, the original house retains two chamfered beams on the right, but has been significantly altered otherwise. Mid-18th-century joinery includes a panelled door and shutters, stud partitions, and a dog-leg staircase with winders and turned balusters on an open string. The 18th-century remodeling is noted in a survey from 1764, which describes Townsend House as "a handsome newbuilt dwelling house." Between 1768 and 1787, the house was occupied by Richard Cox, a notable local maltster and political agent for H.F. Luttrell of Dunster Castle.