1 Fore Street including the range to Coombe Street and attached boundary walls and railings, and part of 3a Fore Street., Chard, Somerset

Summary

A multi-phase domestic building complex comprising a C16 range with late-C18 and later alterations; and an early C19 range with commercial premises on the ground floor.

Description

A multi-phase domestic building complex comprising a C16 range with late-C18 and later alterations; and an early C19 range with commercial premises on the ground floor.

MATERIALS: the Coombe Street range is of Chert rubble, partly rendered; the building to Fore Street is rendered. Both have slate roofs with terracotta cresting, and brick stacks. Windows are timber or metal framed.

PLAN: the Coombe Street range is rectangular in plan, slightly angled at the south end where it joins the north-west rear corner of the Fore Street building. The Fore Street building is square in plan and appears from aerial photographs to be a double-pile structure with a valley roof.

EXTERIOR: the Coombe Street range lies at right-angles to Fore Street and is two storeys with an attic, and four unequal bays north to south. The roof is hipped at the south end where there is a relocated chimney stack, and there is another stack right of centre. On the principal elevation (west) the left-hand bay appears to be late-C18 and remodelled as a double-depth plan; it has a single C19 three-light timber window with a central opening casement at eaves level. The central bays probably comprise the core of the C16 building. These have a C19 seven-light window and a 12-pane window at eaves level, with a C20 12-light fixed window on the ground floor. Immediately to the right is a three-light window with a Ham stone step-ogee-step-hollow moulded surround and hollow-moulded mullions. To the right are two C20 windows, one with a dropped cill. The right-hand bay, containing the stair, is stepped back and has a single timber sash-window between the floor levels. The return elevation to the south has a single entrance to the right, with a C20 canopy and timber door. Above is a small window with a miniature timber sash. The north elevation is exposed Chert rubble stone with a four-light casement to attic level and a three-light fixed C21 window at the ground floor.

The principal elevation of the Fore Street range faces south onto the street. It is two storeys with an attic, and four bays east to west. On the ground floor is a modern shopfront, flanked by timber-pilasters with simple capitals; to its right is a recessed doorway to number 3a. On the first floor are four window openings, the ones to the left have slightly lower cills. These are fitted with timber sash windows. There is a single C20 window to the attic storey on the west elevation. The east elevation abuts 3 Fore Street and has two windows to the attic storey. To the rear (north) there is a further brick chimney stack. Below this is a hipped-roof extension leading to a later, single-storey flat-roofed extension which fills the rear of the plot.

INTERIOR: the Coombe Street range is entered at its south end into a small hallway giving access to the ground floor through an arched doorway. The ground floor is much altered with C21 partitions to create a residential unit. There are two substantial ceiling beams which mark the space into three bays. These are 46cm wide with 20cm-deep chamfers; both are plastered over. There is a large central pier (the historic location of a fireplace), adjacent to which is a possibly late-C18 staircase with a simply-moulded handrail and newel and stick balusters. This leads to the first floor which comprises two further small units, divided by C21 partitions. These are linked by a corridor on the east side which leads to a staircase to the attic storey. Within the attic at its south end are two arch-braced trusses with purlins and a flat collar; below the lower purlin are slots for wind-braces and there is some evidence of smoke blackening. At the north end there are two tie-beam trusses with deep chamfers, one is partly enclosed as is the central truss of the five.

Within the ground-floor entrance hallway (south) there is late-C18 dogleg staircase which leads to the first floor, and into the Fore Street range. It has a ramped handrail, brackets to the string, bobbin balusters and fielded dado panelling to the walls, including to its half- and first-floor landings. The landings have late-C18 decorative plaster cornices with roundels on a frieze with a dentilled entablature. The ground floor under-stairs space has been infilled with a C20 cupboard.

The Fore Street range is of lesser interest. The ground floor is entered from the street into a modern commercial unit, beyond which in a single-storey extension are commercial kitchens and a further residential unit. Within the frontage building is another residential unit on the first floor; the space to its east is a flying freehold to 3a Fore Street. Within the attic storey are a further two residential units.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: at the corner of Coombe Street and Fore Street is a low rubble-stone wall with long/short railings with spearheads and a working gate inserted in the inter-war years.

History

Chard, the highest town in Somerset, has Saxon origins and was listed in Domesday as an estate of the Bishop of Wells. The C11 settlement probably grew up to the south around St Mary’s Church, now known as Old Town. In 1236 the borough of Chard was formed, granted by a charter by Bishop Jocelyn and leading to the realignment of streets to lay out burgage plots and market areas. The principal streets became today’s Fore Street and High Street, and it is likely that historic tenements extended into Holyrood Street and Coombe Street. A Monday market and fair were formalised in 1253, and borough status confirmed in 1285. During the medieval period the town’s economy flourished as a result of the wool trade, based on extensive cottage industry. In 1577 the town was devastated by a fire that destroyed much of the town centre, but because of the buoyant economy, repair and rebuilding was rapid; a manor survey of 1602 records the presence of many new buildings. The great width of Fore Street was designed to accommodate the town’s market and would have been filled with rows of temporary structures used by merchants: a shambles. Little is known about the extent of these, but in 1834, prior to their removal, their site was recorded as west of the junction with Fore Street and Holyrood Street. This is shown on a map of 1820 of the town centre. This junction was also the site of a structure which may have originated as a chapel of ease in the C14 but later became known as the guildhall. Along with the remains of the shambles it was also demolished in 1834 as they were regarded as obstructions to traffic on Fore Street.

1 Fore Street comprises two distinct elements. The first is a low north-south range facing Coombe Street which is largely of a C16 date. Of lesser interest is the adjoining two-storey range facing Fore Street, which is probably early-C19, and links internally with the staircase of the Coombe Street range.

In 1996 the Coombe Street range and the rear of 1 Fore Street were recorded by the Somerset Vernacular Building Research Group (see Sources); their report suggests that this was a house of some status and probably dates from the C16 or earlier. The building may therefore have been part of the rebuilding of the town following the 1577 fire. Due to alterations, the historic extent of the house cannot be determined, but it is thought that the hall would have had three bays with a further three bays at the low end, with perhaps the high end extending further to the north. The absence of smoke blackening implies some form of fireplace, smoke-bay or hood, but no evidence survives.

The first map to show the building dates to 1820 but does not show any detail. A map of 1840 by John Wood shows a building in the location on Fore Street, stretching back onto Coombe Street with an identical footprint as today. The name ‘Treasure’ is marked across it; they appear to have been a family of drapers. The Tithe map shows only the layout of the principal streets with no buildings marked, as the centre of Chard was a Corporation concern. On the first detailed Ordnance Survey (OS) map published in 1889, a building fronting Fore Street and a building behind on Coombe Street fill the corner plot. A historic photograph from around 1890 shows that the ground floors of both buildings were in use as a shop by the drapers Jotcham and Parnham, and had a large, glazed shopfront with a fascia and pilasters. The photograph shows three sash windows on the first floor (two with single upper and lower panes, and one with a single vertical glazing bar) and a dentilled cornice to the eaves. The slightly different windows, with those to the left having lower cills, suggests that the building was perhaps constructed as a semi-detached pair. Set-back to the left was an extension to the shop - in use as a drapery and bazaar - again with a large glazed shopfront, and two 12-paned sash windows on the first floor. The elevation rose to a flat cornice set forward from the hipped-roof behind, which had a brick stack on the west side. By the time of the 1930s OS map the corner part of the Coombe Street building had been removed; the line of its wall plate can be seen on the west side of the Fore Street gable. The entirety of the structure on Fore Street and Coombe Street is marked as number 1 on post-war OS maps.

In the post-war years the ground floor of the Fore Street building continued to be occupied by Parham and Sons. The building then had much the same appearance as today although with short chimney stacks to each gable end. The fenestration to the Coombe Street elevation was also the same as today; it was re-roofed in 2008. Today the Fore Street range continues in commercial use on the ground floor, with three flats above (including one which is located above the entrance to 3a Fore Street and in that ownership); the Coombe Street range is divided into residential units.

Reasons for Listing

1 Fore Street including the range to Coombe Street and attached boundary walls and railings, and part of 3a Fore Street is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* the Coombe Street building retains C16 structural fabric including ceiling beams and arch-braced trusses;
* for the survival of a late-C18 staircase in the Coombe Street range, and its good-quality joinery and decorative plasterwork;
* despite some losses, the Fore Street range largely retains its external appearance and contributes to the understanding of this corner group as a whole.

Historic interest:

* as part of the C16 regeneration of Chard following the 1577 fire;
* as part of the commercial development of Chard town centre in the C19.

Group value:

* with several neighbouring Grade II-listed buildings at the heart of Chard town centre.

External Links

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