No. 95 High Street, Coleshill, Warwickshire

Summary

No.95 High Street, Coleshill is a substantially intact mid-C15 building that stands on the main thorughfare of this market town. Its fabric shows its evolution as a commercial premises and residential dwelling across the centuries.

Description

A mid-C15 building with a C18 front modern shop front, and an adapted C17 rear range.

MATERIALS: The building is constructed of red brick with an oak timber frame.

PLAN: It comprises a two bay building, with a later, single-depth, brick range to the rear. Roughly square on plan, the main range is slightly narrower at its east end. The building faces west and fronts High Street.

EXTERIOR: The façade is rendered in C20 cement, with a storey band. There is a modern shop front incorporating a shop door to the left of the ground floor. To the right is a raised doorway leading to a passageway and the rear of the building. There are two C20 windows to the first floor. The passageway is lined with brick and contains some timber beams and sealed openings. The north gable end of the building is steeply pitched and has exposed timber framing. The south gable end, above the parapet of the attached bank building, is tile hung. The rear range is two storey, and adjoins the bank building via a C20 brick structure. The south-facing elevation, next to the passageway from the main range, is timber-framed with brick panels, and with C20 windows, concrete lintels and patches of replacement brick. The north elevation is rendered with no openings, and the modern render conceals a timber frame with brick panels and a jowled post. The east gable end is a mid-C20 rebuild in brick, and is attached to a brick single-storey range, of late-C20 date. The roofs are covered in C20 clay tile.

INTERIOR: The ground floor is a modern takeaway restaurant with facilities to the rear. The first floor is accessed from the neighbouring bank building. A modern stair leads to a first-floor corridor running north/ south along the later range. There are two rooms from the corridor. Two substantial tie beams, part of the roof trusses above, stand below ceiling height. The north end of the corridor leads into the main range, which is arranged into two rooms and cupboard spaces. The larger room to the north has a central unstopped cross beam inserted in a brick chimneybreast with a sealed fireplace. The south end of the beam is set in a timber attached the roof structure above. The smaller room is kitchen with a partitioned storage area containing timber structure, probably a wall plate, at the east end. The floors are uneven. A hatchway from the kitchen leads to the attic roof space.

The attic is divided into two areas by a central truss infilled with plaster and a doorway is fitted with a timber, braced door with iron strap hinges and fittings. The roof structure comprises two close-studded gable trusses and a central open arch-braced truss with collar. The south truss has eight struts and wattle and daub infill between the tie beam and collar, and one of two V-struts remains above. It has diminished principals. The central truss is supported by extended jowls with ogee mouldings that continue across the deep arch braces below the collar. There are V-struts above the collar. The side purlins pass across the junction of the arch-brace and the collar, with the principal rafter above. The north truss has diminished principals, V-struts and close studding with plaster infill, although this is not intact. The west purlin has been reset, which may date from the cement rendering of the front and the insertion of two dormer windows in the west roof slope, which have been sealed. A brick chimneystack has been inserted at the north end. The chamfered and stopped purlins are clasped between the collars and trusses, with four intact cusped wind braces on the rear roof pitch. Many of the common rafters are early. The apex of the roof is supported by a ridge beam that has been reworked with a pegged joint to the north of the central truss. The floors are boarded in timber. The roof of the rear range has substantial, modified principals, with portions of a clasped purlin arrangement. There are C20 secondary timbers and an inserted brick stack. The base of the arch brace to the central truss is visible in a void next to the stack, with intact moulding and diamond stop. It is attached to a chamfered wall post, resting on a brick wall.

History

Coleshill was a settlement of a considerable size by the Domesday Survey of 1087, and became a significant ecclesiastical and political centre. The medieval borough of Coleshill was established in the C13, by the granting of an annual fair and market charter by King John in 1207. The linear plan of town was probably established around this time, and the market stood on Church Hill, close to No. 95 High Street. The building was constructed in the mid-C15, probably soon after 1456, on the principal commercial thoroughfare in Coleshill. The town continued to develop, notably in the C17 and C18 when it benefited from its location on an important coaching route. The range to the rear of the building was probably constructed in the C17.

No. 95 High Street is shown on the First Edition Ordnance Survey Map of 1888, with a long rear range, on what appears to be a burgage plot. The rear range is shown as being subdivided into seven units on the Second Edition Ordnance Survey Map of 1903 and the narrow passageway next to the neighbouring bank building is shown as gated. The current mapping and building fabric shows that part of the rear range was removed and partly rebuilt, probably in the 1950s. Later in the C20 a brick link structure was built between No. 95 and the bank. In the C21, the ground floor of No. 95 High Street is used as a fish bar, with staff facilities and storage rooms for the bank above.

Reasons for Listing

No. 95 High Street, Coleshill, Warwickshire, a mid-C15 building, re-fronted in the C18, with an adapted C17 rear range and later alterations, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural: the building retains significant evidence of quality early craftsmanship, particularly in the roof structure.
Historical: the building is an early surviving example from the period following Coleshill's foundation as a market town in the C13, and stands close to the original market location
Intactness: the mid-C15 fabric of the main range is largely intact, despite alteration in the C18 including a re-fronting, Later alterations are mainly limited to the fittings and openings and to the rear range
Constructional rarity: the timber roof structure is constructed in a highly unusual manner, with few known other examples. The clasping of the purlin below the collar is rare, and the use of elongated arch braces is very uncommon.

External Links

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