7A, 9A, 9, 11, 13 and 13A Fore Street, 1-4 King Charles Mews and water pump

A former pair of houses built around 1580, possibly incorporating earlier fabric, with phases of updating, alteration and extension from the 17th century onwards. Now sub-divided and occupied by commercial premises and domestic accommodation.

Materials and Construction

The buildings are constructed of Ham stone ashlar, coursed and squared chert, and Whitestaunton limestone rubble, with some sections rendered. Later rebuilding and additions are in brick. The roofs are slate and Roman tile with ashlar copings and brick stacks. The porches have lead roofs.

Plan Form

The plan comprises two L-shaped houses, each with a main range (9 and 11 Fore Street respectively) positioned end-on to Fore Street and a front wing at right angles (7A and 9A Fore Street, and 13 Fore Street), with 17th-century porches.

The courtyard of the former West House contains a mid-17th-century cross wing known as the Courtroom, dating from around 1632, and a mid-20th-century west range. To the north-east lies a range (1-4 King Charles Mews) of late 16th/early 17th-century origins.

The former East House has a similar courtyard arrangement, with a mid to late 17th-century cross wing (13A Fore Street) to the north and a late 18th to early 19th-century east range (part of 13 Fore Street), with late 19th to early 20th-century additions beyond.

Exterior Description

Front Elevation

Most windows in the front elevation have square heads, hollow-chamfered mullions and Tudor-arched lights, except those to the right-hand end which are timber.

To the left (7A and 9A Fore Street) is an early 21st-century shopfront, a late 19th-century bay window under a brattished cornice on the first floor, and a three-light attic window. The three-storey porch has a 17th-century Tudor-arched doorway with a metal gate, corbelling over the entrance, repaired first- and second-floor windows, sill bands and dripmoulds, and obelisk finials to the triple-gabled parapet. Inside the lobby is a blocked window with baluster-shaped mullions and a late 16th-century inner doorway with a studded plank door.

The gabled bay of 9 Fore Street has a late 19th-century shopfront with round-headed lights and decorative cast-iron colonnettes, a first-floor bay window with a moulded sill that continues as a stringcourse, a three-light attic window, and a fleur de lys finial.

11 Fore Street has a 1930s shopfront with corbelled entablature and repaired or replaced first- and second-floor windows. Between the bays is an 18th-century rainwater hopper. The two-storey porch has a 17th-century doorway with a metal gate, a corbelled first floor with windows up to five lights, moulded cornice and triple-gabled parapet. The late 16th-century inner doorway is missing its door.

13 Fore Street has an early 21st-century shopfront and simulated lintels and vermiculated keys to the windows.

Rear and Courtyard Elevations

The rear elevation of 7A and 9A Fore Street has a late 16th-century doorway and a projecting stair turret with an early 19th-century window with lozenge pattern glazing bars and coloured glass, and a 17th-century attic window. Either side of the turret are mid-20th-century extensions. The range to the west is mid-20th century.

The courtyard elevation of 9 Fore Street has late 16th-century ground- and first-floor windows of up to five lights and two gabled attic dormers, all much repaired. A small single light marks the position of a former stair. A 19th-century doorway has been inserted into a ground-floor window and there is a wide 17th-century doorway with plank door and 20th-century porch. To the left, rising from first floor to eaves, is a shallow projection for a late 16th-century stair which has a blocked two-light window and a moulded cornice.

The south elevation of the Courtroom has an off-centre mid-17th-century doorway with the door missing, a late 20th-century window and part of an earlier stone window to the left, and a probable 20th-century window to the right. The large mullioned and transomed first-floor window has a king mullion and two tiers of tall, Tudor-arched lights; the repairs and glazing are mid-20th century. The rear elevation has an identical first-floor window, beneath which is a decayed doorway with a repaired 17th-century plank door and 17th-century mullioned windows, one partially blocked. A secondary doorway was once a window. The west gable wall is plastered and blind.

1-4 King Charles Mews to the north-east has a narrower footprint and lower roofline at its north end. It has early 21st-century doors and windows, many in historic openings, including former taking-in doors. Several vertical joints are evident.

To the rear of 13 Fore Street is a plain brick opening to the passage, and the upper floors have sash windows. The courtyard elevation of 11 Fore Street has a late 16th-century stair turret with small single lights; late 16th and 17th-century stone mullioned windows of up to five lights, some with 19th-century leaded lights; a tripartite sash and a fixed five-light window, both late 19th century and set partly into original openings; and an 18th-century timber attic window. A wide 17th-century doorway has late 20th-century doors and a late 18th-century porch with Tuscan posts set in stone blocks. The north gable wall has a late 19th to early 20th-century bay window, repaired late 16th-century stone windows and a stair turret to the upper floors. An attached late 19th to early 20th-century former dwelling (part of 11 Fore Street) extends north and has a plank door and windows of a mix of styles and dates. Its rear elevation faces onto a narrow, open lightwell. On its north side is another possible dwelling that partly oversails a passageway and may have 18th-century origins.

13A Fore Street (also called Waterloo Court) abuts the rear of 11 Fore Street and incorporates a cross passage. The south front has a weathered, 17th-century stone doorway with a hoodmould extending along part of 11 Fore Street, late 19th-century doorway and windows, and a blocked 17th-century doorway visible internally. The first-floor stone windows have square heads and steel-framed lights; the sill and hoodmould are continuous. The north end of the passage has an oak Tudor-arched door frame and a cast-iron post set in a stone block. To the left is a sash window, and the rear elevation is blind. There is an attached late 19th-century two-storey addition of brick and stone which has a plank door, sash window, casement and tall stack to the west elevation. The late 18th to early 19th-century east courtyard range has a plank door with ventilation holes across the top, an inserted second doorway, casement windows and a tall, blocked opening. On the first floor are three sash windows of different styles and dates. There is a 19th-century single-storey link addition between this range and 13A Fore Street to the north.

Interior

Both houses have the same basic plan with some minor differences, such as in the arrangement of stairs and fireplaces. The ground floor of each main range had a high-status room to the front, probably for dining, a large hall beyond, a small unheated service room and a rear kitchen. The layout of four rooms with oak-framed cross walls was largely repeated on the upper floors. Doorways on each floor provided access to the front wing which may have originally contained a shop with a chamber above. There has been some reconfiguration of the interiors both historically and more recently.

Former West House

The cross passage retains an oak stud and panel screen and a late 16th-century doorway with a 17th-century door. A late 16th or 17th-century newel stair at the back of the present shop (7A Fore Street) leads to the upper floors (9A Fore Street). Historic features include 17th-century fielded panelling, some possibly secondary, Ham stone fire surrounds, and a 17th-century timber balustrade or grille at the top of the stairs. One first-floor room has an ornamental, single rib plaster ceiling that is late 16th century in style but may be a 19th-century copy. A roof truss with a jointed cruck post and principal rafter is partly exposed on the second floor.

9 Fore Street retains features from all phases of its development. The existing staircases are late 16th, 19th and 20th century, with evidence for at least two more. Doors are mostly panelled and of various dates, principally 17th and 18th century, with some re-used in their present locations. Several rooms have high-quality plaster ceilings of thin rib geometrical patterns, with lozenges and squares to the ground-floor front room and circles and hexagons to the front two rooms on the first floor, also leaf motifs and lobed or fruit bosses. The plasterwork appears to be late 16th century, except for the first-floor front room ceiling which may be much restored or a 19th-century copy.

The ground-floor front room has a refurbished fireplace and a probable warming cupboard. A peak-headed doorway to the left no longer opens (2025). The former hall has been subdivided and has a boarded over 17th-century fireplace, 19th-century cornice, and a doorway with a re-used, 17th-century ochre-stained door painted with interlaced arabesques which opens onto a stair within the east wall. There is evidence for a second hall stair. The north room has ceiling beams with deep chamfers and stepped stops, a 17th-century oak panelled cupboard, and a 17th-century fireplace. A re-used 18th-century door with a spring latch opens onto a passage that previously led to King Charles Mews.

On the first floor, the front room has a part-exposed (2025) late 16th-century stone fireplace and a mid-19th-century marble fireplace. The adjacent room has been subdivided and has an identical fireplace (partly exposed, 2025), a late 16th-century plaster ceiling and a 17th-century plaster frieze of foliate motifs, dolphins and possible cherub heads. Largely hidden by wallpaper is an early paint scheme of a brownish pink background overlaid by black and green foliate scrollwork. There is a late 16th-century panelled window seat, 18th-century cupboard and the remains of an early 19th-century fire surround in the next room. The end room has chamfered ceiling beams, a re-used 17th-century door to an understairs cupboard and a mid-19th-century fire surround. In the north-west corner, concealed in a cupboard, is a recess for a stair. The landing beyond has a 19th-century stair and a blocked doorway to the Courtroom. The roof structure of side-pegged jointed crucks and three rows of trenched purlins is visible in the attic rooms.

The Courtroom

The Courtroom has a mid-17th-century oak-screened cross passage with Tudor-arched doorways which was flanked by a former service room or rooms and a kitchen. The kitchen has a 17th-century fireplace, altered to accommodate a 19th-century cupboard with a 17th-century door, and chamfered ceiling beams. The staircase is 19th century.

The first floor, accessed from a mid-20th-century staircase, has repaired and rearranged 17th-century timber wall panelling and a barrel-vaulted ceiling. The plasterwork includes flat double-rib panels, leaf and flower motifs, fanciful creatures and celestial bodies. The central pendant features cherubs and later lion heads. The frieze has a foliated meander and stylised dogs' heads, and tympana to either end feature human figures, beasts, birds, strapwork cartouches relating to justice, wisdom and deliverance, and biblical scenes depicting Daniel in the Lions' Den, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the Fiery Furnace, and the Judgement of Solomon. The restored west tympanum descends to form an overmantel to the stone fireplace. The four roof trusses, three rows of trenched purlins and a diagonal ridge date to circa 1632; there are also reused timbers of 1528-1553.

1-4 King Charles Mews

1-4 King Charles Mews to the north-east is understood to retain some late 16th-century fabric, including an oak screen, possibly reset or resited, and a deep-chamfered ceiling beam. The roof is mostly late 18th to early 19th century but includes an earlier jointed cruck truss.

Former East House

There are extant staircases of the late 16th, late 18th to early 19th and late 19th century, and most joinery dates to the late 18th and 19th centuries; some modern fire doors are present. There are decorative plaster ceilings in 11 Fore Street, of geometric panels, leaf motifs and bosses in two first-floor rooms. A plaster ceiling in the ground-floor front room was described (Somerset Vernacular Architecture Group) in 1979 as partially surviving and identical to that in the ground-floor front room of 9 Fore Street.

The present shop in 11 Fore Street has 21st-century shop fittings and a suspended ceiling, and the rooms beyond have early 19th-century ceiling roses, one incomplete, and there is a moulded cornice in the end room. On the first floor the front room has a part-exposed, late 16th-century Ham stone fireplace alongside a mid-20th-century one and ceiling plasterwork that may be much restored or a 19th-century copy and does not extend into the bay. The adjacent room has been subdivided and retains a late 16th-century plaster ceiling, late 16th to early 17th-century panelling to a window seat and the reveals, and ornamental plaster medallions above. The next room has a 19th-century fireplace, and the north room has late 16th-century ceiling beams and a blocked doorway that once opened onto 13A Fore Street. Several attic rooms have plain timber fire surrounds. The roof structure consists of side-pegged jointed crucks and three rows of trenched purlins.

13 Fore Street has been extensively refurbished, but retains a dogleg stair, several doors and a timber chimneypiece, all 19th century. There is little visible evidence of earlier features, with most fireplaces covered over or missing. 13A Fore Street on the north side of the courtyard has been updated internally, but is understood (Keystone Historic Buildings Consultants, 2015) to retain repaired ceiling beams, its original roof structure, and some late 19th-century doors and a fireplace. The former dwellings at the rear of 11 Fore Street retain simple timber fireplaces and a staircase of the late 19th to early 20th century.

Subsidiary Features

To the rear of 11 Fore Street is a plain, cast-iron water pump that appears to be early 20th century.