MEM22313 - Lance Nicholson's, High Street, Dulverton (Building)

A two storey building with a plain modern shop frontage and rear wing. It may be a 17th or 18th Century rebuild of a medieval or early post-medieval building that also included No.7. It was again altered in the 19th and 20th Centuries.

At the lower end of the High Street, on the south facing elevation, there is a sequence of late 18th-19th Century, two storey, traditional shop fronts. The first floor sash windows have narrow glazing bars. [1] The building was subject to rapid survey in 2011. It is a two storey building with a plain modern shop frontage. It shares the vehicular entry with No. 7 (MEM22312) and may be part of the same structure, perhaps representing half the original width of an original tenement and reflecting subdivision to maximise rental income. The rear wing runs alongside the vehicular entry and terminates at a blunt, angular point. The building's interior has been severely altered for commercial use during the 20th Century but the line of the rear wall of the front range is indicated by steps leading to the rear part of the shop and by the base of a massive stone lateral chimneystack, which continues up through the building and is truncated below the roofline. No evidence for a fireplace, however, exists. The first floor is much altered with few early features surviving. The roofs are better preserved and may be continuous with No.7. The front roof was not inspected in detail but would be consistent with a late 17th or 18th Century date. The rear roof appears to be slightly later and may have oversailed the front range roof; it has, however, been much renewed in the 19th or 20th Century and the relationship is obscured. The original limit of the range could not be determined but it does appear to have been extended. The report suggests this property may be of the same date and construction as No.7 and evidence of medieval or early post-medieval fabric may survive in the party walls and other areas of the building now concealed by modern render and decorated features. The lateral stack may be early but, as it appears to be large enough to contain multiple flues, may also be later. It seems that the original building was a long, low structure spanning both properties, with a central entry now represented by the present vehicular entry and divided by a cob wall. It was rebuilt in the 17th or 18th Century in its present form and the rear range may be contemporary with this or a slightly later addition. It appears to have been remodelled in the 19th or 20th Century. [2]