Description

CHIPPENHAM

ST9273SW ST MARY STREET 930-1/10/189 (West side) 22/06/78 No.18

GV II*

House. Early C18 refronting of late medieval property. Originally timber-framed, now exposed only on right-return wall with middle rail to close studding; rendered limestone rubble with ashlar quoins; some C19 brick to rear; parapeted slate roof; ashlar stacks. PLAN: 4-unit front range, originally timber-framed and heightened by one storey in early C18; rear right range makes L-plan, and has originally-jettied 3-bay range to front, including workshops/warehousing to upper floors, interrupted by bay roofed at right angles from further 3 bays to rear; the 2 right-angled bays are all that now remains of a rear range which, parallel to the front and adjacent to a left-hand jettied range, enclosed a courtyard to the rear. EXTERIOR: 3 storeys; virtually symmetrical 7-window range. Moulded cornice and string courses between floors; parapet; plinth; forward frames to 6/6-pane sash windows, paired to the left of centre; stone doorcase with engaged Tuscan columns, cornice, entablature and pediment. Steps up to a recessed panelled door with raised and fielded panels. Adjoining the rear right wing is a reset C14 pier with moulded capital. INTERIOR: the front range has early timber-frame mostly obscured by later work and one exposed C16 chamfered beam to ground floor; it has retained much original joinery of C18 date, including early C18 bolection-moulded panelling with box cornicing and original shuttering, c1770s reeded and Greek key dados; the cornicing in 2 ground floor rooms is unusually arranged to enclose 2 small square areas, the one to the right-hand hall possibly to an original lightwell; late C18 neoclassical hob grate to 1st floor left and early C18 moulded architrave to fireplace on 1st-floor right. Short rear left wing of early C16 date, mostly demolished and rebuilt in 1994, but retains C16 stone fireplace and evidence in surviving timber-frame of original jettied construction. 3-bay rear right wing of late C16 date has interesting roof with in-line butt purlins and collar trusses with windbraces and queen posts morticed into bridging beams; omission of tie beams, to facilitate working headroom, and line of originally shuttered windows beneath eaves are indicative of this area's former use as a warehouse or workshop space; ground floor room has early C18 fielded panelling. The 2 bays to rear of this, which are roofed at right angles and form the surving part of a range which originally enclosed the rear of the courtyard, have much reset medieval framing, mostly smoke-blackened. 3-bay range to rear also with smoke-blackened trusses with threaded ridge purlins. An interesting and significant survivng example of a C15/C16 large merchant's house, including warehouse/workshop accommodation, which would deserve a detailed record before its complex building history could be elucidated; the C18 work, particularly the internal joinery, makes an important contribution the interest of this property.

Listing NGR: ST9234473128

External Links

• Wikidata Q17544300

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Recommended Books

• 
  Georgian Style and Design for Contemporary Living
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Leeds, Bradford and the North (Pevsner Architectural Guides / Buildings of England)
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Suffolk: West: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair by Hunt. Roger ( 2008 ) Hardcover