Home > Devon > Bideford > Old Ship Tavern Old Ship Tavern
	Picture source: Hania Franek
The Old Ship Tavern was situated on The Quay. Originally the Newfoundland Hotel, in 1902 the landlord of the Old Ship was Francis Snell. After it closed, it became the Rose of Torridge Cafe and then a fish and chip shop. The building is grade-II listed.
Listed building details:
House, now restaurant and offices. Early or mid C17 (possibly a remodelling of an earlier structure), altered in C19 and with C20 addition at rear. Solid rendered walls (some stone rubble visible internally in ground-storey left side-wall and adjacent rear wall); front of third storey may be timber-framed. Pantiled roofs; there were probably 3 roofing-spans originally, lying at right-angles to the quay, but the right-hand span appears to have been replaced by a flat roof. No chimneys. Double-depth plan, 3 rooms wide. 3 storeys; 3-window range, the top storey jettied and finished with 3 triangular gablets corresponding to the original roofing-spans behind. The ground and second storeys have a pilaster at each end; these may be a C19 addition, but it could be that they are the ends of the side-walls, the timber-framed front wall between them having been rebuilt in brick. At the top of each pilaster, under the jetty, is a large foliated corbel, probably C19. Ground storey has late C19 or early C20 canted display window at each end. Entrance in centre flanked by piers with moulded capitals; 2 angled doors recessed within a lobby, each with a solid moulded panel at the bottom and a glazed upper part with margin-panes. Continuous entablature above both display windows and entrance. In second storey 3 wooden mid C19 canted bay windows with sashes; 4-paned sashes in centre, 2-paned ones at the sides, all with margin-panes. Third storey has mid or late C20 three-light wooden casement windows with transom-lights. Right side-wall (visible from public alley) has C20 wooden casement windows in upper storeys, those in second storey with glazing-bars. 2 short ground-storey window with ogee-moulded wooden mullions, each of 4 lights. The left-hand window has the 3 original centre mullions and the left end-mullion, but the remainder, including both sill and lintel, are C20 replicas; the right-hand window is in a similar condition, except that the original lintel with pegged joints survives. At the right-hand end, just beyond the back of the original building, is a square-headed C17 door-frame with ovolo and hollow mouldings, these finished at the bottom with large vase-stops; the feet of the jambs have been cut off and replaced in replica. Interior: little original work can now be seen, and there are several C20 beams and joists, together with some imitation panelling. The left-hand second-storey front room has an original ovolo-moulded ceiling-beam with no visible stops and a rear square-headed door-frame, also with ovolo mouldings and elaborated scroll-stops; adjoining it in the lobby outside is a matching door-frame with C20 door opening into the left-hand rear room. The left-hand roof-span has old trusses with collar-beams and purlins; middle roof-span not accessible. 2 recesses in the left side-wall may be blocked windows, suggesting perhaps that the building was originally free-standing. Although altered, this building is a type of high-class early post-medieval town house that is rare in Devon. It is likely to contain original fireplaces, partitions (possibly panelled) and door-frames at present concealed by later plastering and boarding. WH Rogers has suggested that this building was erected in 1633 at the rear end of a garden belonging to a house in Allhalland Street. In 1842 Wood's plan shows it as 3 separate properties marked 'Western' but 20 years later (before 1864) it had become the Newfoundland Inn. It was subsequently renamed The Old Ship Tavern. Old photographs show it with a very high parapet, wholly concealing the roof-gables.
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Other Photos
Picture source: Hania Franek