Description

CHIPPENHAM

ST9273SW ST MARY STREET
930-1/10/189 (West side)
22/06/78 No.18

GV II*

House. Early C18 refronting of late medieval property.
Originally timber-framed, now exposed only on right-return
wall with middle rail to close studding; rendered limestone
rubble with ashlar quoins; some C19 brick to rear; parapeted
slate roof; ashlar stacks.
PLAN: 4-unit front range, originally timber-framed and
heightened by one storey in early C18; rear right range makes
L-plan, and has originally-jettied 3-bay range to front,
including workshops/warehousing to upper floors, interrupted
by bay roofed at right angles from further 3 bays to rear; the
2 right-angled bays are all that now remains of a rear range
which, parallel to the front and adjacent to a left-hand
jettied range, enclosed a courtyard to the rear.
EXTERIOR: 3 storeys; virtually symmetrical 7-window range.
Moulded cornice and string courses between floors; parapet;
plinth; forward frames to 6/6-pane sash windows, paired to the
left of centre; stone doorcase with engaged Tuscan columns,
cornice, entablature and pediment. Steps up to a recessed
panelled door with raised and fielded panels. Adjoining the
rear right wing is a reset C14 pier with moulded capital.
INTERIOR: the front range has early timber-frame mostly
obscured by later work and one exposed C16 chamfered beam to
ground floor; it has retained much original joinery of C18
date, including early C18 bolection-moulded panelling with box
cornicing and original shuttering, c1770s reeded and Greek key
dados; the cornicing in 2 ground floor rooms is unusually
arranged to enclose 2 small square areas, the one to the
right-hand hall possibly to an original lightwell; late C18
neoclassical hob grate to 1st floor left and early C18 moulded
architrave to fireplace on 1st-floor right. Short rear left
wing of early C16 date, mostly demolished and rebuilt in 1994,
but retains C16 stone fireplace and evidence in surviving
timber-frame of original jettied construction.
3-bay rear right wing of late C16 date has interesting roof
with in-line butt purlins and collar trusses with windbraces
and queen posts morticed into bridging beams; omission of tie
beams, to facilitate working headroom, and line of originally
shuttered windows beneath eaves are indicative of this area's
former use as a warehouse or workshop space; ground floor room
has early C18 fielded panelling. The 2 bays to rear of this,
which are roofed at right angles and form the surving part of
a range which originally enclosed the rear of the courtyard,
have much reset medieval framing, mostly smoke-blackened.
3-bay range to rear also with smoke-blackened trusses with
threaded ridge purlins.
An interesting and significant survivng example of a C15/C16
large merchant's house, including warehouse/workshop
accommodation, which would deserve a detailed record before
its complex building history could be elucidated; the C18
work, particularly the internal joinery, makes an important
contribution the interest of this property.

Listing NGR: ST9234473128

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17544300

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

• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  England's Post-War Listed Buildings
• 
  Hampshire: Winchester and the North (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Suffolk: West: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)