Jacksons Warehouse formerly known as Seymour and Castle Warehouse, Louth, Lincolnshire

Summary

Former warehouse of c1790.

Description

A canal-side warehouse built c1790 following the completion of the canal in 1770.

MATERIALS, PLAN and EXTERIOR: the warehouse is of two storeys, plus attic, and 10 bays wide, built of red brick with a roof of C20 pantiles, raised coped gables and a single truncated gable stack. Dentilled brick eaves extend around both the canal side and the road side.

The south-west gable front has a doorway to each floor, with plank doors and segmental heads with a slight degree of alteration to the openings in each case, particularly around the segmental heads. On the ground floor the doorway is double with a small blocked window opening to the left, again with a segmental arch. Another blocked opening is evident above.

At first-floor level on the south-east elevation, eight small segmental headed windows are separated by a central, wooden-plank taking-in door. Above the line of the eves are four small, semi-circular dormer windows. On the ground floor the openings have been altered slightly, the central taking-in door survives as a double, plank door but a second door has been created at the western end possibly in place of an original window opening. Access to this side of the building was restricted so the architectural details on the ground floor were obscured.

The north-west, canal-front elevation, has central, taking-in door openings on two floors, the doors have been replaced by floor-to-ceiling windows, but the openings are respected. The ground-floor door opens onto a small balcony. On either side and on both floors are four, segmental arched, glazing-bar windows, the windows themselves being wooden C20 replacements. Above the line of the eves are four, small semi-circular dormer windows.

The north-east gable front, has a plank door, with a large segmental headed opening above, now containing two small vertical windows, and above in the gable a three-light casement.

INTERIOR: the warehouse has been converted into a single dwelling but each floor has been left open plan with very few partitions overall. The internal structure of the building is made up of timber floors with heavy cross-beams, joists and floorboards (with modern flooring laid on top). The roof structure is exposed and comprises collar and tie beam trusses, (with later added vertical struts giving the appearance of queen posts), together with a single tier of staggered purlins.

The C21 open, metal and glass stairs rise from the centre of the ground floor, but the stair case from the second floor to the attic is off centre. Openings in the attic floor, over the taking-in doors, may have been an original feature which has been emphasised during the conversion to a dwelling. Such openings enabled the lifting of stock through the taking-in doors and onto the upper floor of the warehouse or out in the opposite direction, to the road or canal.

History

The town of Louth in Lincolnshire, often referred to as the ‘Capital of the Wolds’ has Saxon origins, and at the time of the Domesday survey was one of Lincolnshire’s 7 market towns, with a population of 600. Its medieval core is still discernable in the town’s street pattern, and was bounded by the River Lud, the streets of Gospelgate and Kidgate to the south and Church Street to the east. Street names including the suffix ‘gate’ abound in the medieval core, which is signed from a great distance in every direction by the spire of the St James Church, completed in 1505, the tallest such spire of any parish church in England. Louth’s medieval prosperity was derived from exporting wool and grain, and its magnificent parish church is testimony to the wealth generated by agriculture in the region, and by Louth’s relative proximity to the east coast.

The town’s population was reduced by three-quarters by outbreaks of plague in the 1630s, and by the early C18 economic prosperity had understandably waned considerably. However, the opening of the Louth-Tetney canal in 1770 heralded a new era of prosperity, and the growth of industries related not only to the region’s agriculture such as malting and grain processing, but also activities such as tanning, boatbuilding and warehousing. Much of this development took place around the canal terminus at Riverhead, and the growth of the town eastwards, along Eastgate James Street and Walkergate.

In 1848, the East Lincolnshire Railway came to Louth, extending trade and communication links beyond those of the canal, and further enhancing the town’s economic strength. An expanding population stimulated the development of terraced housing and villas, churches, chapels, schools and a range of public buildings all graphically captured in the remarkable ‘Louth Panorama’ a two section painting by a local man, William Brown. The Panorama presents a view of the town from high in the spire of St James Church. It portrays Louth at the height of its development and prosperity, shortly after the arrival of the railway, set in its surrounding rural landscape, with the east coast seascape in the background. The structure of the town has changed remarkably little since the Panorama was created, and Louth has mercifully escaped the large-scale post-war redevelopment experienced by many communities in England. Louth remains a thriving historic market town with a high proportion of well-preserved C19 buildings.

Jacksons Warehouse, formerly known as Seymour and Castle Warehouse was built c1790 following the completion of the canal in 1770. It was originally used to store a range of local produce, primarily wool and grain before being shipped down the canal to Tetney Lock and along the Humber to Hull and beyond. In exchange, coal, fruit and vegetables would have been imported.

The warehouse was first listed in November 1992 (NHLE 1261127) and converted to a single private dwelling in c2003.

Reasons for Listing

Jacksons Warehouse of c1790 is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Architectural Interest: the warehouse is imposing in its scale but modest and functional in design, not intended for decorative effect, but is well constructed. It retains clear evidence of its former use and is a fine example of a C18 warehouse;
* Historic interest: as a late-C18 example of a large warehouse, which was built following the opening of the Louth–Tetney canal and during the new era of the towns' prosperity, when warehousing was a lucrative and necessary facility;
* Completeness: the warehouse is substantially intact, retaining a significant proportion of its original fabric, and remains legible for its former use as a warehouse;
* Group value: Jacksons Warehouse, The Navigation Warehouse and the Woolpack Inn, all listed at Grade II, form a significant group which represent a once more extensive and prosperous industrial landscape.

External Links

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