MSO12315 - 1 to 5, Church Lane, Dulverton (Building)

Terrace of five houses. Circa early to mid C19, Nos. 4 and 5 are earlier. Painted stone rubble. Pantile and asbestos tile roofs with gabled ends. Brick axial stacks Nos 4 and 5 have stone rubble rear lateral stacks. PLAN: Terrace of five single-fronted houses with outshuts at the back; Nos 4 and 5 at the left (NW) have been incorporated from an earlier building with lateral stacks at the rear. EXTERIOR: 2-storeys, some with attics. Long 10-window range. Sashes, No.4 has earlier C19 12-pane sashes; No.1 has later C19 bay windows on ground floor. C19 panelled doors with flat canopies with panelled soffits on brackets and rectangular overlights. Roof at rear carried down over 2-storey outshut, No.4 with gables, No.5 has single-storey outshut. INTERIOR: No. 1 has C19 joinery. No.5 has lateral fireplace on the back wall with chamfered timber timber lintel. [1-2] One or two of the cottages on Church Lane were the parish poorhouse. [3] The painted stone rubble frontages are complemented by the entirely cobbled surface of the street. The roofs are a mixture of slate and pantiles. Each cottage has a straight hood porch on brackets over the entrance door. [4] Mrs Bagg ran a dame school at 2 Church Lane, which was known as 'Baggs Academy'. In 1830, one of the houses in Princes Street (now Church Lane) became Dulverton's first poorhouse. This house caught fire in 1838. [5] 2 Church Lane has two front doors, which may be to do with it being a school. [6] The school was known as 'Baggins University'. [7] No. 2 was subject to rapid survey in May 2011. The houses in Church Lane are complex structures but it is likely that Nos. 1 and 2 are the earliest parts of the terrace, possibly dating from the early 17th Century. No. 2 retains some fabric, particularly the fireplace in the front room with its fine slate hearth and timber lintel, which could date from the 17th or 18th Century. The house was much refurbished in the 19th Century when many of the internal fixtures were added and the rear lean-to appears to have been remodelled to provide extra bedrooms under a higher roof line with gabled 'chiclets'. The anomaly of two entrance passages may suggest an element of shared accommodation, either a shared passage to the garden or some other division of the building between two families or tenants. The gardens also appear to have been shared, though these were in use as the vicarage orchard in the 1820s (Siraut, 2011). The terrace of three houses to the southeast could not be inspected in detail. This terrace was probably constructed during the early 19th Century but appears to replicate the basic plan form of the earlier structures. The houses in this part of the terrace may also have had rear lateral stacks, now represented by later chimneys or by patches in the slate roofing where chimneys have been removed. The position and appearance of the buildings together with the possibility of shared accommodation might suggest that the terrace was intended as a set of almshouses, though no documentary evidence exists for such. [9] The buildings were visited in February 2012 as part of the rapid condition survey of Exmoor's Listed Buildings 2012-13. Nos 1-4 received a BAR score of 6; no 5 received a score of 4. [10] The building is mentioned in the 2019 Conservation Area Appraisal for Dulverton. [11]