Description

WARE TOWN

TL3514SE HIGH STREET
829-1/9/107 (South side)
08/05/50 Nos.53 AND 55

GV II

Formerly known as: No.53 and House over HIGH STREET.
Former inn, subsequently a house, now commercial premises.
C16, refaced and altered C17, C18 and C19. Timber-framed,
stuccoed, fish-scale patterned tiled roof with Welsh slated
margin and 3 gabled casement dormers.
EXTERIOR: 2 storeys and attics, with jettied first floor
carried on paired wooden brackets. 4 irregularly spaced
flush-set sash windows with glazing bars, and exposed boxes
with architrave surrounds on first floor. On ground floor,
early C20 shopfront at left beneath jetty, No.52, has timber
panelled stallriser, broad plate glass display windows in
canted recess at right. Original ground floor level lowered at
front to accommodate shop. Right of carriageway, No.55 has
entrance doorway with 6 stone steps up to 6 fielded panelled
door and rectangular fanlight in fielded panelled reveal; 2
flush sash windows on right with glazing bars, set in
rusticated stuccoed wall. Cellar window. Central carriageway,
with elliptical arch, has twin diagonally boarded doors with
ramped moulded top rail. Wicket in left hand leaf with early
C19 nameplate `Water Row' above. Timber studwork exposed in
carriageway above tarred brick plinth, and protective painted
boarding. Central binder and rafter exposed in soffit, and
principal posts carrying rear of carriageway on brackets,
extended further back early C19. Carriageway floor has cobbled
margins, with raised granite spurstones and curbs, and granite
slab paving. Entry door to No.53 to right at rear of
carriageway, early C17 with 2 recessed panels, with lion-head
knocker in upper, set in moulded surround. Outshoots
timber-framed and plastered, 2 storeys, with old tiled roofs,
No.55 having fan-patterned pargeting on first floor.
INTERIOR of No.53 has ground floor lowered in front room, but
rear room retains original floor level and has an exposed
braced tie-beam truss carrying the first floor, with heavy
moulded beams, and a red brick fireplace, with a moulded and
embattled timber lintel. The former brewhouse and barn in the
rear outshoot beyond also contain moulded beams. No.55 has
large ground floor Tudor-arched brick fireplace. First floor
with C17 oak panelling in left hand front room. Roof over
front block halved and pegged rafters, with collars and side
purlins immediately above attic ceiling level, reworked C17
from earlier roof.
Roof over rear outshoot of No.51 (qv) has a side purlin roof
with windbracing. Site occupied by The Raven Inn C16.
Subsequently became a house, with a C19 malting constructed
behind No.51, converted to residential use in 1980s, and no
longer of special interest.
(Perman D: Ware UD. List of buildings of special arch or
historic interest.: 1993-: 30; Ware 25" to 1 Mile. Surveyed
by the Ordnance Survey Department: 1851-; Forrester H: Timber
Framed Buildings in Hertford and Ware: Hitchin: 1964-: 37-8;
Moodey GE: East Hertfordshire Archaeological Society
Newletter: Hertford: 1955-).

Listing NGR: TL3579014306

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26512154

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.

Recommended Books

• 
  Cambridgeshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  London 1: The City of London: City of London v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Kent: North East and East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Farrow & Ball How to Decorate: Transform your home with paint & paper