Description

CREWKERNE

ST4409 MARKET SQUARE
876-1/7/91 (West side)
12/06/50 Nos.13 AND 15
Oscars

GV II*

House, possibly an inn, now a shop. Early C16 with early
additions of rear wings; later alterations.
MATERIALS: stucco facade, limestone rubble to the rest;
steeply-pitched slate roof with stone coping, moulded kneeler
and brick stack to right gable end.
PLAN: 3-unit cross-passage plan with 2 rear wings.
EXTERIOR: 2 storeys; 4-window range. The first-floor has
4/8-pane sashes in forward frames. A late C19 shopfront, to
the right-of-centre of the ground-floor, has a moulded fascia
with ornate consoles, reaching almost to cill-level; 3
plate-glass windows between colonnettes, and a set-back door
to the right. To the left is a 6-panel door in a moulded
architrave, (the original entrance to the cross-passage); to
the outsides are smaller but similar shop windows.
INTERIOR: the building is over a vaulted cellar of 3 equal
bays which correspond with the rooms above plus the
cross-passage; it has a high rubblestone plinth around the
north, east (front) and west (rear) sides. A line of columns
along the centre have round bevelled capitals below square
abaci, the bases are similar; corresponding half-columns
against the wall, stand on the plinth and have no bases.
The floor is of Ham Hill stone flags with a runnel along the
sides and north end wall, draining into a hole in the
north-west corner. The ground-floor room to the north,
possibly the parlour, has a deeply-moulded beam against the
north wall, an obscured beam to the south end and an axial
beam to the centre. The central room, the former hall, has an
elaborate framed ceiling of 3 main compartments divided by
richly carved axial and wall beams. A beam marks the 4ft width
of the former cross-passage; there is evidence of a former
fireplace in the south wall.
First floor and roof: the north wall contains a small stone
fireplace with a cambered lintel and sunk spandrels, the
moulding to the arrises is stopped approx 1 inch above the
floor. The first bay, to the north, is formed by a tie-beam
truss with vertical rods for wattle and daub; the tie-beam has
been shaped to the rear end, probably over a former doorway;
the second bay has an almost similar truss with carpenters'
assembly marks (III) at the apex and 2 rows of trenched
purlins, both replaced.
Above the present ceiling there are wind braces to the front
between these trusses and slots for windbraces to the rear.
The purlin above them is chamfered with step-and-runout stops
to both edges.
The third bay, which covers the cross-passage, has replaced
purlins; the south roof truss is marked II, it has slots for
windbraces, and rodholes and grooves from a former partition;
the fourth bay, to the south, ends at a stone wall with a
stack of the former fireplace on the ground floor.
The rear wings have collar truss roofs; that to the south is
higher with carpenters' marks I and II on the two trusses; the
collars are halved on and pegged; the purlins rest on those of
the main block. The first-floor front wall is 6 inches thick
and one exposed panel approx 3 ft square, adjacent the central
truss, reveals depressed crossed curved braces.

Listing NGR: ST4410409827

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17554159

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

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  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
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  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects, Supplement 2014