Masonic Hall, Caretaker's House at Rear and Garden Walls at Left and Rear Devon, England, UK

Listed Building Description

BIDEFORD

SS4526 BRIDGELAND STREET 842-1/5/30 (North side) 08/11/49 No.12 Masonic Hall, caretaker's house at rear and garden walls at left and rear (Formerly Listed as: BRIDGELAND STREET (North side) No.12)

GV II*

Part of a large house originally including No 11 (qv); now Masonic hall with caretaker's house at rear. 1692; front refaced and rear wing widened in C19. Solid rendered walls (probably brick underneath). Slate roofs; crested red ridge-tiles on front range. Rendered chimney at left end of ridge on front range; 2 more at rear. Plan: front range has through-passage at right-hand side; to left of it the staircase with a room beyond that; one room in rear wing with a range behind it, parallel to the street. There must have been at least 2 more rooms fronting the street (on the site of No 11) and it is quite possible that the house had a full courtyard plan like that at Nos 28 and 28A (qv); the rear range is not certainly original, but must date from at least the early or mid C18. 2 storeys, with garret at rear. 4-window front covered with rusticated render; raised band above ground storey. Moulded wooden eaves-cornice. Windows segmental-headed with moulded flush frames containing 6-paned sashes; sills supported by a small bracket at each end, the ground-storey sills with low decorated iron guards on top. Wide doorway flanked by plain-shafted Ionic columns supporting entablature with pulvinated frieze and modillioned cornice. Doorway itself is segmental-headed, but fitted into it is a square-headed moulded architrave and an 8-panelled door. In front of latter a low wooden dog- or child-gate with turned balusters; to left of doorcase an iron hook and ring, presumably for tying up dogs or horses. Rear wall of rear range (visible from Ropewalk) has segmental-headed, flush-framed windows containing 6 or 8-paned sashes; one in ground storey has early, thick, glazing-bars; modillioned eaves cornice. Left-hand garden wall, adjoining Lavington Chapel, is of old (probably late C17) red and yellow brick; rear wall fronting Ropewalk is similar, built on a high stone-rubble plinth. INTERIOR: at rear of through-passage a round arch with moulded imposts. Beyond it, to left, door to staircase; half-glazed with coloured glass, fanlight with Gothic glazing-bars. Open-well wooden staircase rising to second storey has closed, pulvino-moulded strings, stout turned balusters, square newels with flat moulded caps carrying ball-finials (the latter probably a later addition), broad flat moulded handrail. Ornate moulded ceiling with thick moulded ribs; round centre panel with guilloche decoration, flanked by 2 shaped panels, the whole enclosed in an oblong. Foliated boss in centre, modillioned cornice enriched with egg-and-dart round the wall-tops. Front and wing rooms in ground storey combined into a single dining-room. Front part has raised bolection-moulded panelling and foliated cornice; early C19 reeded door-frame with carved flowers in top corners. Second-storey rooms above similarly combined to form an imposing masonic temple with painted coved ceiling and columns. Rear section (in wing) has raised bolection-moulded architrave and moulded cornice. Front section has raised-and-fielded ovolo-moulded panelling in early or mid C18 style. Front room over through-passage has part of a box-cornice, apparently cut off when the house was divided. Some of the panelling in the house is clearly C19 or early C20 imitation, but the bulk of the bolection-moulded panelling is almost certainly original. Rear range not inspected, but ground-storey window has early or mid C18 shutters with raised-and-fielded ovolo-moulded panels. This is Bideford Bridge Trust property, built under a lease of 21.9.1693 to John Smith, merchant. A second lease of 20.5.1698 describes it as the house 'wherein the said John Smith now dwelleth and heretofore lately built by him'; it had a frontage of 80ft. By 1784, when it was called the Great Hou