80 and 80A Fore Street including warehouses to rear (The Sale Room, The Crossway and warehouse to south fronting Wherry Quay), Ipswich, Suffolk

Description

642/4/62
642/4/62A

FORE STREET (west side)
80 AND 80A including warehouses to rear (The Sale Room, The Crossway and warehouse to south fronting Wherry Quay)

(Formerly listed as: FORE STREET 80 AND 80A)
(Formerly listed as: FORE STREET OUTBUILDINGS AT REAR OF NOS.80 AND 80A)

19-DEC-51

GV
I
House with attached warehouses to rear. Early/mid C15 with house crosswing dated 1636 and warehouse early/mid C15, remodelled mid C16. Further warehouses c.1540 and late C17. Minor later alterations.

RANGE 1 (No 80 Fore Street)
Western half of front range. Originally formed part of a row of late medieval houses extending east-west along the south side of Fore Street. Timber-framed and plastered. Dated by dendrochronology to AD1418 - AD1449. Two storeys and attic with a jettied upper storey. Crown post roof with diminutive braces to collar purlin. Carriage entrance at east end also C15 but later widened, probably in C17, when Range 2 was added at east end. Large C19 sash window (originally with external shutters) and smaller window to west at ground storey. Two C19 mullion and transom windows to first floor. A section of C16-C17 plaster with decorative render in the naive style representing brickwork was recently uncovered on the rear wall above the carriage entrance. This was conserved, recorded and then covered over.

RANGE 2 (No 80a Fore Street)
Timber-framed and plastered cross wing forming east half of front range, dated 1636, and similarly dendro-dated. Two stories with attics and cellar at front. Street-fronting elevation is double jettied with a projecting gable above the first storey. Both the first storey and gable have carved bressumers and the gable is supported by carved brackets. The first storey of the cross wing has exposed timber-framing. The gable bressumer has the date 1636 and the first storey bressumer has the monogram H above W.F. The upper storey of the cross wing has an oriel window with a carved frame and carved supporting brackets (in the same style as those of the Neptune Inn, No 86) and small high level flanking frames with leaded lights. The ground storey has two double-hung sashes with glazing bars to the ground storey. These sashes have unusual sash weights. The oriel window at first floor has a six-light, double-hung sash with glazing bars. The attic has a C20 casement. The ground storey is faced in painted brick. A wing extends south at the rear of the cross wing. Two storeys and attics with two large gables slightly projecting on front and with exposed timber framing on the first storey. The attics are lit by casement windows in the gables. The first storey has two six-light casement windows (originally two large windows with flanking high level windows) and the ground storey has one paired double-hung sash window with glazing bars and one C21 timber casement. The ground storey is painted brick and plaster. The east elevation has 2 tall stacks and a small gabled dormer.
INTERIOR: features include C18 panelling re-used from elsewhere on the rear wing first floor and a prismatic light set into the underside of the stair from first floor to attic.

RANGE 3 (the 'Sale Room')
Two-storeyed warehouse wing extending to south of Range 2, with exposed timber-framing on the first storey and painted brick on the ground storey. Roof tiled. Ground storey brick walls laid to English bond. The west (courtyard) elevation has two windows to the first storey (the present central window is a later insertion) and evidence for a former window opening at its extreme north end. Beams of original first floor frame exposed within the ground storey. Crown post roof with double set of collars and diminutive braces to collar purlin similar those in Range 1. The wall plates have been dated by dendrochronology to c.1540, however the range incorporates many reused or repositioned timbers, and there is evidence that the tie beams, wall posts and much of the present roof structure may have originated in a former C15 range standing on, or near to, the site of the present range, which was taken down and rebuilt following the construction of Range 4 to the south (the Crossway). The north end of the range abuts, and has been truncated by, the rear gable of range 2. The east elevation is rendered to first floor, brick to ground floor and with a weather-boarded gable end with blocked pigeon holes to Range 4.

RANGE 4 (the 'Crossway')
Three-storey timber-framed warehouse range. Mid C16, dated by dendrochronology to c.1540. This extends westwards from south end of Range 3 (the Sale Room). Timber-framed. Roof tiled. North (front) elevation has exposed timber-framing with brick nogging infill at first and second storeys and brick on the ground storey, part painted and plastered. Six bays. Three storeys. Central carriageway dates from original construction but has been widened to east, probably in C17 following the construction of Range 2 and widening of carriage entrance through street-fronting range. Originally, the first and second storeys were each lit by three windows on the north side arranged one above the other. The upper three windows were oriels with projecting frames supported on timber brackets. The lower windows were set flush with the wall and had diamond mullions with moulded timber sills externally and horizontally sliding shutters. Between the central and east pairs of windows at first and second floor was an exterior doorway, both now blocked, with a projecting porch at eaves level above the upper door opening. Internally, the first and second storeys are divided into five bays by four intermediate cross frames. The attic floor has knee-braces. The roof is of clasped purlin construction with wind-braces and divided into six bays by five intermediate roof trusses. At east end a late C16 staircase with original wooden partition screen leads from the first storey of Range 3 to the second storey of Range 4. Above this is an inserted C18 or C19 pigeon loft. To the west of the staircase opening at second floor is a grain-processing machine dating from c.1840 and at one time gas-powered. To the west is Range 5 (q.v.) and to south is Range 8.

RANGE 8: late C17 or C18 maltings range extending southwards from east end of Range 4.
Two storeys and attic. Lower storey of brick, upper storey timber-framed with brick nogging infill. Softwood timber-framing throughout. First floor includes a number of perforated kiln tiles replacing stone pammets. The ground and first storeys are divided into twelve bays by eleven transverse floor beams supported on timber wall posts. The floor construction was purpose built to form a malting floor with wall plate and studwork approximately 15ins (380mm) above floor level to prevent soaking. Second (attic) floor level is boarded and is approximately 2ft (600mm) below wall plate level and includes upper (or hanging) and lower (or knee) braces to the floor beams. The roof is divided into twenty bays by nineteen principal rafter trusses. The roof is of staggered tenoned purlin construction and has straight collars. The range known as the 'kiln block' now Cobbolds on the Quay Public house (q.v.) is attached to west side of Range 8 at its southern end.

This house and warehouses form the major part of an exceptional group of historic buildings. The group is the last surviving example of a C15-C17 Ipswich Merchants house with warehouses at the rear opening directly on the dock front, where merchandise was unshipped, stored and distributed wholesale or sold retail in the shop on the street front. See also Cobbolds on the Quay Public House, 1-7 Wherry Lane and Warehouse attached to west of Warehouse (The Crossway) etc, Fore Street.

Bond, R., ISAAC LORD, English Heritage HA&RT Reports and Papers 7, Rev.2002.
Bridge, M. and Bond, R., Tree-Ring analysis of Further Timbers from the Isaac Lord Complex, Ipswich, Centre for Archaeology Report 76/2002.

Listing NGR: TM1682344147

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