The Gables

ST4717 STOKE SUB HAMDON CP NORTH STREET (East side) 6/316 No. 54 (The Gables) 19.4.61 GV II* Detached house. Circa 1600, extended early C18, modified 1911. Ham stone ashlar facade, cut and squared to sides and rear; Welsh slate roof between stepped coped gables; stone chimney stacks. Two storeys with attics, 6 bays. Plinth, cill and head strings to lower windows; hollow-chamfer mullioned windows in chamfered recesses except bay 1, where such windows were adapted for 12-pane sashes; windows 2-light above and 3-light below to bays 3 and 5: to bays 2 and 6 are angled 2-storey bays of 1+3+1 fights, above which are shaped corbels and coped gables with gabletted finials in which are set 2-light attic windows with labels: bay 4 is a projecting porch with small sidelights to ground floor; to first floor a 3-light to front and 2-light windows each side each with label, and in gable, which has a tall wrot-iron weathervane finial, is a 2-light attic window with label; the porch opening is semi-circular arched, with lozenge-decorated keystone and impost blocks, and inside a moulded cambered arched doorway with incised spandrils framing a C17 door; nearby graffiti of 1615. On south side a wing wall with matching mouldings, probably C19. On north east corner a single-storey and a lean-to extension, with further projections to rear, including a staircase unit and a small service wing. Inside, much of interest: the cross passage has a plank and muntin partition on the south side, a steeply chamfered beam with step and runouts, and remains of a partition to north; to south the hall, with lateral fireplace and fine early C17 plastered ceiling of curved rib design, with frieze; this room extended southwards and eastwards, with a reset outer doorway dated 1726; the dogleg stair may be original in its lower length, the centre having very thin turned balusters in an as yet undeveloped framework, but the upper length has an early C18 balustrade; several cambered arched doorways, including one to the small room over the porch; the main south bedroom has a moulded cornice coving with vine-leaf frieze below, again early C17: roof of collar-trusses with 2 rows trenched purtins each side. In a rear outhouse is evidence of a bacon curing chamber, and in the grounds the remains of what is said to be a C18 swinming bath. The house occupied for some years by Dr. Walters, the antiquary. (VAG Reports, SRO Unpublished, October, 1972 and August, 1973; VCH Vol III, 1974).

Listing NGR: ST4739417644