Summary
Market, first built 1825-1826 for Sir Francis Basset; extended in the 1850s, improved and enlarged in the 1870s and partially rebuilt in the early C21 after a fire.
Description
Market, first built 1825-1826 for Sir Francis Basset; extended in the 1850s, improved and enlarged in the 1870s and partially rebuilt in the early C21 after a fire.
MATERIALS: the main (north-west) elevation of the market house is of granite ashlar; the other elevations are of rubble killas stone with granite quoins. The hipped roof is of slate. The courtyard ranges are of rubble killas stone, with slate and C20 corrugated concrete roofs and two brick chimneys. Most of the courtyard elevations have ground-floor colonnades with granite columns. The courtyard elevations of the south-west and south-east ranges have timber boarding and windows on the first floor. The visible outer walls of the former meat market are of rubble killas stone, with granite quoins.
PLAN: the Buttermarket comprises three main elements: the market house at the south-east corner of the site on Station Hill; the open courtyard range which includes the lower floors of the Mining Exchange and Wheal Peevor Office on Alma Place; and the partially-rebuilt meat market on the north-west side of the site, stretching towards Market Strand. All elements are rectangular in plan.
EXTERIOR: the principal (north-west) elevation of the market house faces the courtyard. On the ground floor are four semi-circular arches with keystones and a projecting impost band. Three arches are infilled with timber windows above a brick base, one has a C20 door. A further window and three arches are obscured by a 1977 extension*. The north-east elevation has a quoined, segmental-arched door opening above stone steps, leading into the first floor. The south-east elevation has four blocked arched windows under a moulded string course and three first-floor windows. The south corner has a recessed door, inserted in around 1900 on conversion to a printer’s workshop. The building has a slate, hipped roof with terracotta cresting.
The south-west and south-east courtyard ranges are of two-storeys. The outer south-west elevation (to Fair Meadow car park) has a projecting plinth, and at the centre stone steps lead up under a brick arch to the market courtyard. The butt-jointed horizontal boarding to the walls flanking the steps is probably mid-C19. On the first floor are five original window openings; three have sash windows and two are blocked, and there is an additional small C20 window. The outer south-east elevation (to Station Hill) has a carriageway opening at the east end, and three sash windows to the first floor.
The courtyard-facing elevations of the south-east and south-west ranges have open colonnades on the ground floor, with a flagstone corridor with C19 granite drainage channels in front of enclosed market stalls (or units). Most of these stalls have horizontal timber panelling under vertical-pane windows, and vertically-boarded timber doors; all of this appears to be mid-C19. Part of the ground floor in the south-east range has been infilled. On the upper floor these ranges have a continuous row of vertically-glazed windows above boarding faced with C20 railings, divided by full-height chamfered posts into bays of two windows each with four panes. The boarding is mostly C20 tongue-and-groove, apart from an area of C20 weatherboarding above the carriageway in the south-east range (perhaps replicating the historic arrangement). The first-floor chamfered posts each correspond with the columns below. Above the carriageway to Station Hill is an inscription which faces the courtyard: ‘Notice. Any person leaving any empty wagon or cart in the market place will be subject to a fine of 6d before they will be allowed to remove the same.’ The current lettering appears to be a re-painting but may echo an earlier inscription.
The inward-facing north-west courtyard range has C20 vertical boarding between the wall-plate of the roof structure and the column heads. The columns in this range have square, stepped granite pedestals. The three bays at the east end have on the first floor two two-light windows and two rows of six windows. The easternmost bay has an inserted unit on the ground floor which extends into the lower-ground floor of the Mining Exchange.
The north-west elevation of the former meat market (beyond the C21 shopping arcade*) faces onto Market Strand. It has a central arched opening with granite quoins, with a later doorway to the left with similar quoining, and a C21 opening to the right. The upper part of the west corner has granite quoins and a pyramidal cap above the parapet; there is a similar cap above the central entrance arch.
INTERIOR: the ground floor of the market house has five pairs of cast-iron columns which support encased ceiling beams. There are C20 subdivisions at the south-west end, and a further cast-iron column. The first floor has vertical panelling to the south-east wall, and a brick arch in the south-west wall leads into the first floor of the south-east courtyard range. The floor is of timber boards.
The ground floor of the south-east and south-west courtyard ranges is largely occupied by market stalls (or units) divided by vertical timber partitions, some of which survive in their original form (for example in units 7 and 10 in the south-west range). In unit 10 at the north end of the south-west range, a wooden workbench survives. Two staircases at the north end of the south-west range lead to the flat on the upper floor (not inspected). The storage room above the carriageway in the south-east range has boarded ceilings.
A double-height north-west range fills the gap between the courtyard and the covered C21 shopping arcade*. The roof structure comprises queen-post trusses with long diagonal struts on the courtyard side which bridge the wall plate and the top of the courtyard columns. Within the north-west wall is a pointed arch which provides access between the shopping arcade and the north-west courtyard range. To the east is a blocked arch with a late-C20 staircase leading up to the first floor built against it. In the north-east corner is a small office with a late-C19 decorative partition.
The lower ground floors of the Mining Exchange and the Wheal Peevor Purser’s Office were originally open to the courtyard; they are now enclosed and subdivided by partitions of brick, timber and breeze block. The lower ground floor of the Mining Exchange contains one historic granite column, cast-iron columns, historic cobbles and granite floor drains.
*Pursuant to S.1 (5A) of the Planning Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 it is declared that these aforementioned features are not of special architectural or historic interest.
History
Redruth town and its market developed from the C14 focused at what is now the crossroads at the west end of Fore Street. King Edward III granted a charter for a market and fair in Redruth in 1333; the market was held on Fore Street twice a week and the fair at Fair Meadow. Over the following centuries the charter was revived, in each case granted to the lord of the manor of Tehidy, William Basset. At some point in the C17 the market was acquired by the Buller family (John Buller having been a trustee for the Bassets).
The earliest known market building in Redruth was a timber-framed and thatched building located in Middle Row on Fore Street, directly beside a clock tower. The artist JMW Turner (1775-1851) produced an undated sketch of the market which showed an open ground floor with lean-to roofs around the building to provide shelter. By 1791 it was the largest market in Cornwall, but the building was demolished in 1795 as it was obstructing traffic in Fore Street. It was noted by many in the early C19 that this was a great improvement in terms of space and also helped increase trade. The market moved south to Market Strand and was rebuilt by 1801.
In 1823 Sir Francis Basset (1757-1835), 1st Baron de Dunstanville and Basset, bought the site of the market and its buildings and rights from James Buller for £1,000. In 1825 Basset initiated the construction of new market buildings at the south end of the site, and by summer 1826 the work was well-advanced. The new market buildings were just one of several improvements in Redruth in the early C19, including the rebuilding of the clock tower (the third on the site) in 1826. The new market occupied a L-shaped footprint, comprising a two-storey market house to the south-east on what is now Station Hill, with a narrow alleyway flanked by single-storey colonnades leading north through a gated entrance to Fore Street, and predominantly occupied by butcher’s stalls. The upper floor of the market house was probably used for meetings (the Wesleyan Association held services there in 1838) whilst trade occurred in the open-sided area below. On the north-east side of the site was a Baptist Chapel which faced on to Treruffe Lane. By 1841 the market was owned by Frances Basset (1781-1885), leased to James Eathorne, and occupied by George Harris and John Charles Lanyon.
At some point in the mid C19 the southern courtyard was extended with two-storey ranges to the south-west, resulting in an inverted T-plan of open colonnades. It is likely that the extension happened in the late 1850s when Redruth was first connected to the national railway network and local industry was at an economic peak. This T-plan is shown on a plan of the manor of Tehidy, surveyed by James Henderson in 1874. A variety of produce was sold at the market, but it came to be particularly renowned for its meat and in particular pork. From the 1860s to the 1880s the Redruth Rifle Corps used a room at the market as an armoury.
In the late C19 the market’s owner Gustavus Lambert Basset (1834-1888) instigated a major campaign of improvements to the market. A new meat market building with twin clerestorey roofs was constructed in 1877 on the site of the butchers’ stalls to the north, and alterations were made to the older buildings around the courtyard. At the same time, the Baptist Chapel and the north-east range of the market were demolished, and Treruffe Lane widened, eventually becoming Alma Place. The 1879 Ordnance Survey (OS) Town Plan of Redruth shows the changes made by Basset at this time, including the north-west market range which had been replaced by a new block with a wider footprint. This eventually formed the lower-ground floors of the Mining Exchange on Alma Place - constructed in 1880 - and the Wheal Peevor Purser’s Office (1883) to its south. The map also shows that the three sides of the courtyard were open colonnades and the ground-floor arches to the market house (labelled ‘pork market’) were open towards the courtyard. The design of the new market has been suggested as James Hicks (1846-1896), who designed many of the new buildings in Alma Place including the Mining Exchange and Purser’s Office. Hicks had also designed several buildings for Alfred Lanyon, the lessee of the market, including the remodelling of his house, Tolvean, in 1870. In 1884, the roof of the market house was reconstructed as a hipped roof; the contractor’s agreement describes the new roof for the ‘Buttermarket’ and this may be an early example of that name being used for the complex. In 1886, Basset sold the market to Alfred Lanyon – the valuation described ‘the Meat Market, Pork Market and Buttermarket’ and the De Dunstanville Arms and other premises on Alma Place. In 1892 James Hicks prepared plans for a public hall above the meat market; this was never built.
At the end of the C19 demand for the market faced decline. Butcher’s shops opened in the town and in 1892 the Redruth Bacon Curing Company was founded, diverting some of the pork trade away from the market; howver, in 1897 Redruth market was still the largest in Cornwall. In around 1900 the ground floor of the market house was converted into a printer’s workshop for PR Earle and Co. This included the insertion of windows in the ground-floor arcade; cast-iron columns made by W Visick of the Devoran Works; reinforced ceiling beams; a new south corner door and possibly also the insertion of metal windows on the upper floors. The cast-iron columns and ceiling beams were probably inserted to strengthen the building against the vibrations of the printing presses and a gas engine on the ground floor.
In 1920 the market was acquired by the Redruth Market Company for £3,000. By 1924 a first floor had been inserted at the east end of the north-west courtyard range. In the post-war period, parts of the first-floor courtyard ranges were converted to residential accommodation. By 1967 a two-storey extension had been built behind the Wheal Peevor Purser’s Office; its ground floor was used by the printers and the first floor in conjunction with the office, then in use as an estate agent. A larger extension was added behind this in 1977*. The meat market ceased trading in the post-war period, and possibly as early as 1958, and was converted into a furniture warehouse. On 10 September 1982 fire broke out in the warehouse and spread to the buildings on Alma Place. Only the outer walls of the meat market survived. In 2000-2001, a shopping arcade with offices above* was designed by Hocking and Newton was constructed within the surviving walls.
Reasons for Listing
Redruth Buttermarket, first built 1825-1826 for Sir Francis Basset, extended in the 1850s, improved and enlarged in the 1870s and altered in the early C21 after a fire, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* despite alterations, the fabric and plan of the 1825-1826 market survives well, and the later C19 additions add to its architectural interest;
* for the use of local materials including the characterful granite colonnades around the courtyard, creating a corridor in front of enclosed market stalls which have intact windows and doors.
Historic interest:
* for the influence of the market from its medieval origins and its connected economy on the development of Redruth, in contrast to other towns that developed due to the impact of the mining industry;
* in recognition of it being the greatest and largest market in west Cornwall from the C17 – when it attracted attention from, amongst others, Celia Fiennes and JMW Turner – and into the C19 when it was famed for its pork, despite commercial competition;
* despite the loss of the 1877 meat market, the complex contributes to an understanding of the development of Alma Place as part of a late-C19 attempt to create a business centre in Redruth.
Group value:
* with the Grade II listed buildings on Alma Place, particularly the Mining Exchange and Wheal Peevor Purser’s Office.
External Links
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.
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Cambridgeshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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