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© Mr John H. Sparkes

IoE Number: 373843
Location: 6-14 CASTLE STREET (north side)
  BRIDGWATER, SEDGEMOOR, SOMERSET
Photographer: Mr John H. Sparkes
Date Photographed: 27 March 2007
Date listed: 24 March 1950
Date of last amendment: 31 January 1994
Grade I

BRIDGWATER ST2937SE CASTLE STREET 736-1/10/27 (North side) 24/03/50 No.12 (Formerly Listed as: CASTLE STREET (North side) Nos.6-14 (Even) No.16) GV I House. 1723-8 for James Brydges, Duke of Chandos. By Benjamin Holloway or Fort and Shepherd, the Duke's London surveyors. Used as a nursing home from c1920-1990. Red and yellow Flemish-bond brick, probably chequered. Moulded stone coping to the parapet, cornice, architraves and cills, double-pitch plain tile roof with a flat roof between the ridges, brick stacks to gable ends. Double-depth plan. 3 storeys; symmetrical 5-window range. The parapet and cornice sweep up to the left; the bricks have a vertical joint to the first floor left and the second floor right. Cyma-moulded segmental-arched architraves carved from rectangular blocks set into the brickwork have 6/6-pane sashes, some with crown glass. The moulded architrave to the door has C20 wooden hood on brackets flanked by narrow C20 wooden pilasters. Arches to the cellar. INTERIOR of ground floor; the rear of the 8-panel door has plain panelling, large wrought-iron L hinges, lock, wrought-iron bolts and catches including an opening device for a central door-knob. The floor is late C19 polychromatic tiles. The fine open-well, closed-string staircase to the rear left corner has turned balusters, turned newels with inverted swept pyramidal pendants, swept moulded handrail and C20 treads. The C20 entrance door to rear, formerly a window, has panelled shutters. The room to the right has ovolo moulding to the tops of the simple skirting boards, a moulded dado-rail, full-height raised-and-fielded panelling and a box cornice. Fireplace to left has an eared architrave to a painted stone fire surround with moulded and beaded inner arris which has rounded corners to the top, its moulded wood frame has box cornice and C20 added mantelshelf; grate is early C20 tiled. Flanking the fireplace are 2 substantial cupboard doors of 4 raised-and-fielded panels set in wide moulded architraves with plinths; the panelling above and to the sides is designed to accommodate them; the back wall of cupboard to right is painted brick. The cornice is interrupted and returned to spaces to the centres of front and back walls and that over fireplace. Small plaster shells are attached to the ceiling in the spaces, that over fireplace is set into a larger shell, all of which is set into a hemispherical recess in the ceiling; below it and that to the front wall have ventilation grilles below. The rear wall of room to right has been repositioned to make a passage behind, it has ovolo moulding to a simple skirting board, moulded dado rail, full-height raised and fielded panelling, a box cornice and a fine painted carved wood fire-surround. This has a moulded cornice stepped forward at the ends with egg-and-dart moulding below, carved acanthus leaves to the consoles, 2 richly-carved swags of fruit and flowers flanking a central vase on the lintel and shell moulding to a frame around a white marble inset on a plinth. The complete cellar floor is of brick or similar-sized stone; 2 tunnel vaults run parallel to the street connected by a cross-vault; wall to right is divided into segmental-arched storage bays; C20 steel columns support to the front vault. The terraces of houses in Castle Street form an important group, unusual for their scale and ambition outside London's West End. (Buildings of England: Pevsner N: South and West Somerset: London: 1958-: 100; Colvin H: A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1660-1840: London: 1978-: 428; VCH: Somerset: London: 1992-: 200).