Summary

Late-C18 to early-C19 house and shop.

Description

Late-C18 to early-C19 house and shop.

MATERIALS: constructed of brick with a slate roof.

PLAN: the building has two bays and is rectangular on plan with its principal elevation facing north.

EXTERIOR: arranged over three storeys with painted brick in Flemish bond, the upper two storeys each have two 16-pane fixed casements. The windows sit beneath shallow stone segmental arches with keystones. There is a brick end stack to the right-hand side (west) and a dentilled cornice beneath the eaves. The shopfront on the ground floor is a late-C20 replacement with a wide fascia board. The pilasters to either side have been altered but are remnants of an earlier C19 shopfront.

INTERIOR: the ground floor shop has been modernised in the late-C20 and extends into the C20 extension to the rear. The upper storeys of the building have been altered with most fittings removed. A C19 cast-iron fireplace survives in the first-floor room. The newel-post closed-tread stair also dates to the C19 and has turned posts with plain balusters.

History

The market town of Hinckley was relatively small and rural in nature by the C17, with approximately 1000 inhabitants recorded in 1640. The town has been dubbed the ‘home of the hosiery industry’ and it was this industry which saw the town’s rapid expansion, with a population of 4,500 by 1811 with 1,500 mechanical stocking frames installed. New streets were created and areas around Castle Street and The Borough developed, with former farm buildings adapted for industry or commerce and agricultural yards filled with cottages for workers. In the first half of the C19 the growth of Hinckley was stunted by the slowing of the development of the hosiery industry, and poverty in the town was severe. The arrival of the South Leicestershire Railway in 1862 allowed the stocking industry to continue to expand with steam-powered frames and large factories, and the corresponding prosperity allowed the town to expand significantly beyond its historic core.

23 Castle Street is likely to have been constructed in the late-C18 or early-C19 during the period of the town’s rapid expansion. The 1899 trade directory for Hinckley records a draper inhabiting the shop, and a roughly-contemporary historic photograph suggests that the building remained a drapers into the early C20. The photo also shows that the building had four 16-pane fixed casements; photos from the early to mid-C20 show these replaced with eight-over-eight sash windows. 16 pane windows with fine glazing bars have been reinstated at an unknown date. In the late-C20 the shopfront was replaced and the rear of the building extended, replacing a small outshut shown on the first edition Ordnance Survey map.

Reasons for Listing

23 Castle Street, Hinckley is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* as a late-C18 to early-C19 house with ground floor shop, retaining architectural features including sash windows, C19 newel post stair and cast-iron fireplace.

Historic interest:

* constructed in the late-C18 to early-C19 the building was erected in a period of expansion for Hinckley and is an important part of the town’s development.

Group value:

* the building possesses group value with other Grade II listed buildings on Castle Street of a similar date which further helps to demonstrate the rapid growth of the town during the period.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26473087

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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