9 Market Street, Whittlesey, Cambridgeshire

Summary

A high-status vernacular C17 house with extensions and phases of alteration in every subsequent century.

Description

A high-status vernacular C17 house with extensions and phases of alteration in every subsequent century.

MATERIALS: the building is principally constructed of limestone rubble with freestone dressings. It has been extended in brick, and its roof is covered in Welsh slate.

PLAN: the historic plan form has been lost. The building is divided between shops at ground floor and other accommodation above.

EXTERIOR: the principal elevation faces north on to Market Street. It is six bays wide, and three storeys high, with a pitched roof covered in Welsh slate ending in a chimney stack at the east end. The ground and first floor are walled in limestone rubble, with freestone quoins and a cornice beneath the C19 brick-built second floor. There are two C20 shops fronts at ground floor. At ground and first floor two-light stone mullioned windows survive to the right of centre. A third mullion window has been in-filled at basement level on the far left-hand side of the building. Changes in the stonework indicate where some earlier windows have been removed; one of these on the right hand side at first floor has been infilled with a carved head-stop amongst the rubble. C18 or early C19 sash windows have been introduced at first floor, and there are three C19 casement windows at second floor.

The east elevation comprises a single gable which adjoins 7a Market Street (Grade II) on the left-hand side. Scars in the stonework indicate the steep pitch of the original roof, similar to that of the Black Bull diagonally opposite. A stone mullioned window remains at ground floor, and at first floor half of an original stone window surround remains (now blocked).

The west elevation faces a narrow alley. It has a blind gable wall, with a blocked window at ground floor and a later stone-built porch. It adjoins a late-C20 two-storey extension built of stretcher bond brick with a flat roof.

The rear elevations are on the south side of the building. They include the return elevation of the late-C20 brick-built extension, and a full-height C21 extension (unfinished and walled in chip-board at the time of inspection, 2022). A single-storey, rendered, breeze-block wall connects the principal structure to a massive C18 gault brick chimney stack, shared with 7b Market Street.

INTERIOR: the building retains structural elements dating to its original phase, such as principal beams and floor joists, many of which clearly display carpenters' marks used in their assembly. The original beams are all chamfered with lambs tongue stops. The base of the massive early-C18 chimney stack has a very wide fireplace originally for an open fire in a large kitchen, later converted in the early C20 to include a tiled range. The stairs were replaced in the C20.

Of particular interest internally are the important wall paintings at first floor level. The most extensive survival occurs at the west end of the building and is found across two walls: the western gable wall, and the north wall facing Market Street.

Wall paintings: western room.

The western wall survives almost in its entirety, and attaches to small amounts of wattle-and-plaster ceiling material at its top. It shows three rows of fictive panelling, above which are two wide landscapes with trees, hills, buildings and figures. The north wall clearly shows that there was originally a window at the left-hand side and that the wall paintings continued into the reveals of the window. Surviving details on the north side include human figures in mid-C17 dress, and the continuation of the fictive panels.

Wall paintings: eastern room.

The eastern wall has a central corbel supporting a principal beam. There is a skin of earthen plaster over this wall which retains some painted elements on the right-hand side, above a C17 mantle-beam and altered fireplace. The painting has black lines, blue shading and white highlights. It consists of a patterned strip squares and diapers with wave-like borders above and below. On top of this is a set of scrolls and balls with finials.

At ground floor level, number 9 bites into the floor plan of 7a. This is not repeated at first and second floor, where 7a oversails the small area of 9 below it.

History

Construction of 9 Market Street (historically also called Almshouse Street) in Whittlesey took place in the mid-C17, when the town was beginning to expand as the surrounding fens underwent a major programme of drainage, creating highly fertile farmland. The building would have been relatively prestigious within the town: it as a large house, sited in a prominent location close to the market, bordering the churchyard of the medieval parish church. It was constructed of stone, an uncommon material in the fens, and contained some high-quality interiors.

Key areas of high-status wall paintings survive at the east and west end of the first floor. The west end is of particularly good quality and has the best level of survival, covering one entire wall, and partially surviving along another. The paintings include fictive panelling, and a large frieze showing landscapes, buildings and figures set within painted frames. At the east end of the building, an area of wall painting survives above an original fireplace and shows a patterned strip surmounted by scrolls with balls and finials. All of these have been painted directly onto earthen plaster. The paintings were discovered in 2018 when C18 wood panelling was temporarily removed as part of a major set of building works.

In contrast to the rare survival of these original decorative features, the building as a whole has undergone a high degree of alteration. In the C19 the roof was raised to provide a third storey. The rear of the house has been serially altered: at the east end it connects to the separately listed 7a and 7b Market Street, which dates from around 1700 and may historically have formed part of the same property as number 9.

The western half of number 9 extends to the south on all three floors. These extensions are varied in age: the oldest element is a massive early-C18 brick chimney stack which is shared with 7b Market Street. The chimney stack is the only part of the extensions on the west side of the site to pre-date the mid-C20. The rest of the fabric at the rear of the building has been heavily reconstructed and at the time of inspection (2022) was undergoing a further phase of rebuilding.

The building's basement no longer appears to be accessible, its ground floor shops have been modernised, and the upper storeys have lost their historic plan form.

Reasons for Listing

9 Market Street, Whittlesey, a high-status C17 vernacular house, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* for the rare survival of extensive C17 wall paintings, produced to a very high quality;
* for its vernacular architectural interest, making use of traditional building materials and techniques.

Historic interest:

* as a high-status C17 house, illustrating the period of Whittlesey's growth as an important Fenland market town.

External Links

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