5, Widcombe Hill Bath, England

Text courtesy of Historic England. © Crown Copyright, reprinted under the Open Government License.

WIDCOMBE HILL 656-1/42/1902 (South side) No.5 05/08/75

GV II

House in row. Late C17 or early C18 c1700, refronted late C18, with C20 alterations. MATERIALS: Limestone ashlar, rubble rear wall, wide-span double Roman tile roof. PLAN: Broad-fronted range, two storeyed to front. EXTERIOR: Three storeys to rear generated by fall across site, to left stable or outhouse with long sloping lean-to roof. Three windows, all twelve pane sash, but those to first floor deeper than to ground floor, and spaced unevenly, with flush six panel part-glazed door in architrave with keystone, off-centre, right, and with bottom-rail following slope of hill. Broad platband at first floor, and coped gables have two ashlar stacks to right, small cropped stack, left and further square stack to gable head. Lean-to left in rubble, with fixed nine pane light above plank and glazed garage doors. Rear retains much earlier fabric. Top floor has four light recessed ovolo mould casement with central king mullion under stopped drip, but lights all blocked, flanked by broad twelve pane sashes. Middle floor has full width drip course over five light casement, but outer lights blocked, formed from two two-light recessed ovolo mould casements, each now with only one glazed light, joined by inserted glazed light of almost equal width. To right three light unmodified casement. Lower ground floor has paired twelve pane sashes, with remains of ovolo mould casement to left, under drip course, but to left four pane sash. Central C20 glazed door in bolection-mould architrave has slab hood on carved console brackets with cornice moulds. To right broad wing with lean-to roof, with central panelled door. INTERIOR: Not inspected, but reported as having stone staircase. One of the earliest houses in this area, and one that retains a fine rear elevation which retains its original mullioned windows. The opening of the turnpike road to Bradford and Trowbridge may have led to the reversing of street fronts, and the later C18 refacing of the former rear elevation in fine ashlar. As such, the two elevations sum up the changes in Bath house-building over the course of the century, as well as the imposition of standard Palladian tastes in place of local vernacular traditions. SOURCE: Bath Archaeological Trust/RCHM England, Georgian Bath Historical Map (1989).

Listing NGR: ST7581664050