Description

DOWNHAM

499/0/10003 TOWNSEND
03-JUN-09 15

II
No. 15 Townsend is an early C18 three-celled town house based on an existing medieval burgage plot and as such is a rare and important survival of an otherwise redundant side-entry L-plan town house.

MATERIALS
The house is constructed of a timber frame with lath and plaster or brick infill and is pebbledashed to the exterior; the late C19 south extension is of brick and the gabled roofs are clad with late C20 concrete tiles.

PLAN
Medieval L-shaped town-house plan of three cells comprising a parlour to the west, a secondary living area in the centre and a kitchen to the east. In the late C19 a second sitting room was added to the south and in the late C18 a sunk dairy was constructed behind that.

EXTERIOR
One storey and dormer attic. Blind gabled façade towards the street which was never pierced by openings. Two set-offs and an internal gable-end stack at the apex of the steeply-pitched gabled roof. To the south is the front cross wing largely rebuilt in the late C19 in brick under a steeply-pitched gabled roof with an external gable-end stack to the south; one top-hung casement. The north elevation has three two-light C20 casements to the ground floor and a glazed timber porch in front of the half-glazed door. Steeply-pitched gabled roof with two gabled dormers fitted with two-light casements. East gable-end stack removed. The south elevation has been modified by the addition of a late C18 brick lean-to under a catslide roof which contains the cellar and the original entrance from the side courtyard. This is protected by a mid-C20 timber and glass conservatory porch. The main roof above has one gabled dormer with a two-light casement.

INTERIOR
The east-west range has an early C18 timber frame of thin scantling with brick infill to the outer walls and wattle and daub to the interior ones, and a timber-framed corridor has been created along the south side of the centre room in the late C18. The west room is dominated by the wide inglenook fireplace in the west wall with the original bressumer intact behind later boarding. To the south is the winder staircase leading directly to the room above, and to the north is a small recessed cupboard. Pamment floor and a chamfered bridging beam with tongue stops. In the north-east corner is an early C18 timber corner display cupboard with raised and fielded lower doors on HL hinges.

The unheated centre room has been truncated by the insertion of a closed-well single-flight early C20 staircase within muntin and plank walls which leads to the centre first-floor room. The timber-frame is evident. Rough chamfered spine beam supported on a post at the east end. The east service room is entered through a plank door with strap pin hinges and the chamfered spine beam continues from the centre room, with tongue stops at the east end. Wide east fire opening under a bressumer, fitted with a mid-C19 cast-iron fire grate and register plate. The middle rail of the timber frame is evident in the south wall, beyond which is the late C18 brick cellar approached by a flight of six brick steps from the south passage.

The first floor has an identical three-celled plan to the ground floor. The west room has a three-panelled raised and fielded door on HL hinges and a boarded fireplace in the west wall to the south of which opens the winder staircase, and to the north is a recessed cupboard. It has chestnut floorboards throughout. The centre room has a stick balustrade to the staircase and this was also unheated. The east room retains a late C18 cast-iron basket grate in the reduced fire opening. Roof structure of coupled rafters and a ridge piece, over which is a late C20 softwood roof structure.

HISTORY

The house is a direct replacement of a medieval L-plan town house with the entrance from the south side in the manner of those in King Street in King's Lynn of the C15 or Winchester and York in the C14. In the early C18 Townsend was still divided into the narrow medieval burgage plots and when the house was rebuilt there was no option but to form the replacement in the same manner as the original, and in this way the house is a survival of an older idiom, not a revival for aesthetic reasons.

SOURCES

Nicholas Pevsner, Buildings of England, Cambridgeshire (1970), 330-331
Anthony Quinney, Town Houses of Medieval Britain (2003), 86-90
http://www.littledownham.net accessed on 31 December 2008

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION DECISION

No. 15 Townsend is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

* Built in the early C18, it embodies the survial of a late medieval L-plan form, designed to conform to available plot size, and demonstrates the age range associated with such houses.

* The timber-frame construction is substantially intact, and the plan has not been materially altered by subsequent modifications

* Early C18 fittings such as doors and cupboards are evident in this building

Reasons for Listing

* It is a rare survival of an L-plan medieval house type built in the early C18 to conform to the available plot size
* The village up until the early C19 had many such burgage plots based on the Bishop of Ely's medieval manor, but this is the only known survivor with a house designed for such a plot
* The survival demonstrates that the age range associated with such houses might be modified
* The timber-frame construction is substantially intact, and the plan has not been materially altered by subsequent modifications
* The good standard of subsidiary early C18 fittings such as doors and cupboards is evident in this building

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26672481

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.

Recommended Books

• 
  Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability
• 
  Norfolk 1: Norwich and North-East: Norwich and North-east v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Hampshire: South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings
• 
  Building Small Projects (New Best of Fine Woodworking)
• 
  Sussex: West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)