Description

CALNE

ST9970 THE GREEN
755-1/5/157 (South side)
19/05/50 No.19
Priestley's House

GV II*

House. C16; refronting dated 1758. Limestone ashlar, coursed
rubble sides, right-hand ashlar gable stack and slate and
pantile roof. Double-depth plan with a long rear W wing.
2 storeys, attic and semi-basement; 3-window range. Divided by
plinth, plat band, thin cornice and parapet, with roll-moulded
coping to front gables, and parallel gabled range behind.
Entrance between left-hand windows has a raised surround with
pediment, and swept steps and curtail up with a wrought-iron
railing to a 6-panel door. Paired mid C18 windows in raised
surrounds to slightly recessed 9/6-pane sashes with thick
glazing bars. 2 large early C19 hipped 4-light dormers with
leaded casements, and a smaller 6-pane dormer between. 3
basement openings have ovolo mullions, of 3 lights to the
centre and right, and 4 to the left. A panel above the door
inscribed C/F*E/1758. The left-hand gable has a window in a
former door; the rear gable has altered C20 mullion and
transom ground- and first-floor windows, and a chamfered
stone-mullioned attic window.
S front has a central Tudor-arched doorway with chamfered
reveals, and a long W range, a C17 former malthouse with
blocked 2-light mullion windows to semi-basement, later C18
2-light wood-framed windows inserted with segmental-arched
lunette window in S gable, and 3 small eaves gables to the
attic drying floor.
INTERIOR not inspected but reported to include a C16
full-width semi-basement remodelled C17; 4-centre ovolo
moulded doorhead re-used with C17 chamfered jambs; 5-centred
arched stone lintel to fireplace with moulded head converted
for use as oven. Ground and first floors with chamfered oak
beam and floor boards. C17 fireplaces; first-floor hob grates.
Later C16 moulded wall beam re-used as doorway lintel in
malthouse. Rear dormers show ends of extended collar beam
trusses.
HISTORICAL NOTE: originally a continuous range with No.20 (qv)
and the White Hart Hotel (qv), the semi-basement extends
beneath all three; divided into 2 houses, and refronted, in
mid C18 by the Child family of Heddington. The home of Dr
Priestley c1772-9 who in 1774 discovered oxygen while working
as librarian for the Earl of Shelbourne at Bowood House.

Listing NGR: ST9996470725

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17545792

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

• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cork: City and County (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Buildings of England)
• 
  Georgian Style and Design for Contemporary Living