Summary

Two former brick houses (now painted and rendered) of the late 18th century, built for Richard Irlam Grantham, but retaining timber-framed elements of the 17th century and earlier, and with mid-19th century features associated with their commercial development.

Description

Two former houses of the late C18 built for Richard Irlam Grantham, retaining elements of the C17 and earlier, later used as shops and a public house, and currently (2025) vacant.

MATERIALS: hand-made red brick to the front facades (painted to number 13, rendered to number 15), most of the north wall (rendered) and cross-walls. Machine-made brick (rendered) to the west end of the north wall and much of the rear façade of number 13. Stone sills (painted). Some internal timber-framing mostly with hand-made brick nogging but possibly retaining some wattle and daub. Mostly artificial-slate roofs.

PLAN: standing at the north end of a terrace of four buildings on the west side of Altrincham’s old marketplace, with number 15 at the north end and number 13 abutting to the south. (The rebuilt numbers 11 and 9, which are not part of the listed building, stand to the south.)

EXTERIOR: the east front is of three storeys and five bays. Number 13 comprises the three left-hand bays and has an eaves gutter. It is of painted brick in Flemish bond with rubbed-brick lintels (with mid-C19 moulded plaster keystones added at the first floor). It has a late-C20 brick pub frontage to the ground floor with arched windows and tiled pilasters, and an inserted arched doorway at the left. Number 15 is of two narrower bays, framed by full-height pilasters and with a second-floor plat band, and with a mid-C19 bracketed eaves cornice and parapet. It has an over-painted early-C20 tiled pub frontage with blocked doorway, and late-C20 oriel windows to the first floor.

The north façade to Albert Place is of three storeys in scored render. It is gabled with stair windows and entrance aligned with the ridge, and a catslide at the right over three lower storeys. Set back to the right of this is the early-C20 brick north façade of the former gabled rear outshut, with a tall chimney stack at the eaves of the catslide.

The west (rear) façade is also largely rendered but with early-C20 brick at the left under the catslide. To the right of this is the half-gabled rear outshut. Set back to the right of this is the rendered modern rear wall of the centre bay of number 13, with a window and fire door at the first floor, and pub entrance below. To the right is the late-C20 brick gabled stair bay to number 13, with a modern fire escape landing at the first floor. The south wall is obscured by the attached number 11, which has a separate north wall.

INTERIOR: Number 13: altered particularly to the front half and with the loss of most of its cross-wall at the ground and first floors, but amongst features of note it retains its hand-made-brick south wall and much of its timber-framed predecessor, to all floors. Towards the rear this wall has exposed box timber-framing at the first and second floors. Abutting this is a 3-storey late-C18 dogleg staircase with open string, three turned balusters per tread, plain scroll-moulded tread-ends and a ridged, ramped banister rail. The ground-floor flight is panelled enclosing the stone cellar stairs. The front and rear rooms to the ground floor both have chamfered oak beams (on stone corbels in the front room) running east-west, (the rear one possibly reset), and there is a chamfered bressumer beam (probably reset).

The first floor retains some historic floor structures (much overlain with later structures). To the front the brick former party wall survives to full height, but at the time of inspection the chimney stack had been taken down and the second-floor chimney breast partially dismantled, with the bricks retained for reuse. Towards the rear the north wall conceals an earlier timber-framed wall. The roof structure retains a hewn truss with king post and raking queen struts, and hewn purlins. The cellar has a partial brick floor and a brick barrel vault in the west half (running north-south), and the east half retains the south arch of another former vault. The north wall of the cellar is partially built of stone.

Number 15: the eastern half has a mostly modern roof structure, but to the first floor is a ceiling with hewn joists and chamfered beam, and vestigial remains of reed plastering. This house also retains a late-C18 three-storey timber staircase, with open string, turned balusters and a ridged banister rail, and some extremely wide landing floorboards (up to 10 inches). The cross-wall (west of the stair) has two storeys of timber-framing with some hand-made-brick nogging and some possible wattle-and-daub nogging, and some assembly marks. This wall includes possible reused earlier timbers, including a possible reused crick blade. The second floor of this wall is of hand-made brick, probably C18.

The ground-floor and first-floor rooms to the west of this wall both have probable C16 ovolo-moulded beams running north-south, with historic joists. The first-floor beam has visible run-out stops at both ends of the moulding, while the ground-floor beam’s north end is partially concealed within the north wall, and only its southern stops are visible. The north walls of these rooms are of C20 brick, and the west walls have an outer skin of C20 brick but inner skins of hand-made brick. A half-gabled rear outshut retains hewn purlins and rafters, and hand-made-brick south and west walls. The cellar retains stone steps and the northern half of the western arch of a former brick vault.

History

The former Orange Tree Inn at 13 and 15 Old Market Place comprises two former houses of late-C18 date which incorporate fabric of the C17 (or possibly earlier), and occupy what was originally a single burgage plot fronting Altrincham’s marketplace (which was probably laid out in the C13, when the borough charter was granted). Both were probably rebuilt by Richard Irlam Grantham (1768-1845, who was Altrincham’s mayor in 1827), perhaps in a single campaign.

Before the C18 rebuilding, these were two-bay houses with gable ends facing the marketplace . Number 13 was probably three storeys tall (possibly with an attic as well), while number 15 was probably two storeys plus an attic. They might have had commercial units opening onto the marketplace, but had entrances in their long sides; number 15 from Albert Place, and number 13 from an alley separating it from number 11, to the south. The alley extended at full-height for the full depth of the building, and number 11 may have loaded goods from it via a taking-in door.

When number 13 was rebuilt in the late C18, it spanned the former alley, the front end of which became the entrance passage of the house, with a doorway from the marketplace. A two-bay commercial unit was created in the adjoining front portion of the plot, with the rooms of the house behind and above it. In the front half the timber-framed north wall of number 11 was hidden by new brick walls but to the rear a staircase was built directly against it. The quality of the staircase suggests that number 13 was rebuilt for Richard Grantham’s own use. (Number 11 was demolished in 1983 and since replaced; its timber-framed former north wall now forms part of number 13). Number 13’s north wall was rebuilt in brick as a party wall with number 15 in the front half, but to the rear it retained elements of an existing timber-framed wall, which may originally have been a party wall, or belonged to either number 13 or 15.

Number 15, whose front half was rebuilt at the same time as number 13, had a new lateral staircase built against a retained timber-framed cross-wall. A storey was added to the rear in brick. By 1835 Grantham had rented out number 13 to the shoemaker James Matthews, and lived in the rebuilt portion of number 15, while to the west of the cross-wall the rear portion of number 15 (which originally extended across the current yard) was separately occupied, with some commercial use. (The coach-house and stables beyond, which were rebuilt in the early C20 as a substation, were not part of number 15, but served the Red Lion Inn at number 9 Market Place.)

In the mid-C19 both buildings were altered to reflect their commercial use. Number 13 had shaped plaster ‘keystones’ added to the rubbed-brick first-floor lintels (and originally also over the alley doorway). Number 15 was rendered and had a parapet with bracketed cornice added at its eaves. This probably dates from when number 15 became a beerhouse, thought to be in the 1860s. Around 1874 it took the name the Orange Tree from a pub of that name which had stood at number 3 Railway Street (next to the Stamford Hotel) and was demolished when the street was realigned.

In the early C20 much of the timber-framed rear wing of number 15 was demolished, leaving only its eastern bay and the southern part of the bay to its west. The north wall (along Albert Place) of what remained was replaced in brick, and a new brick outer skin (rendered in part) added to the former internal walls that now formed the western end. In the 1970s the pub was extended into number 13. This involved inserting structural steels to the ground and first floor in number 13, and removing most of the north wall of the former alley and the front half of the party wall between 15 and 13 at ground floor. This was probably also when the longitudinal brick barrel-vault in the southern half of the cellar to number 15 was removed (although the fact that its span is truncated on the centreline by the party wall between 13 and 15 suggests that this boundary has moved in the past). Oriel windows were added to the first floor of number 15, and the pub frontage extended across the two right hand bays of number 13 in modern brick with arched windows, and a new arched entrance where the former alley doorway had been. The rear façade of number 13 was also rebuilt in modern materials, and a gabled brick outshut added around the stair.

The Orange Tree closed in 2024 and at the time of assessment (2025) had been partially stripped internally, including the loss of a reed plaster ceiling in the first-floor front room of number 15.

Reasons for Listing

The former Orange Tree Inn, two former houses of the late C18 retaining substantial elements of C17 timber-framed predecessors, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* as a pair of late-C18 town houses that retain their principal interior features, including staircases and storage cellars, and with mid-C19 embellishment to the façade denoting their commercial development at the time;
* for the substantial survival of elements of their timber-framed predecessors that indicate potential for further concealed early fabric.

Recommended Books

• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Building Small Projects (New Best of Fine Woodworking)
• 
  Georgian Style and Design for Contemporary Living
• 
  Worcestershire Revised Edition (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Northamptonshire: Buildings of England Series (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)