5, 7 and 9 Church Street, Buckden, Cambridgeshire

Summary

A C17 vernacular farmhouse with C19 and later alterations.

Description

A C17 vernacular farmhouse subdivided and extended during the C19 and further modified in the C20 and C21.

MATERIALS: timber framed and externally rendered, with infill panels principally of lathe and daub but with some areas of brick or cement; brick chimney stacks, and a pitched plain-tiled roof.

PLAN: the building as a whole is one room deep plus extensions, with three principal rooms to the ground, first and attic storeys. The original lobby-entry plan form can be determined from the position of the main entrance to number 5, and from the structural bays within the building.

EXTERIOR: the whole building has painted rendered wall surfaces, with some small areas of brickwork to the rear. The single pile core and lobby entry plan can be appreciated from the principal elevation, parallel to Church Street. Each structural bay has a street facing entrance door and sliding sash windows at ground and first floor. A shop front extension to number 9 has a small tiled roof and a pair of canted bay windows. A single small dormer sits centrally within the steeply pitched plain tiled roof. A large red-brick chimney stack rises through the ridge and stands between numbers 5 and 7.

The rear elevation includes a three-storey gabled stair compartment in a roughly central position with a water pump at its base. A narrower two-storey gabled extension stands at the east end, reducing to a single storey projection along the garden boundary. These two projections are connected at the ground floor beneath a cat-slide roof running all the way to the ridge. Sliding sash windows, and some C20 hinged windows, are irregularly placed around the rear elevation.

The east elevation has a ground floor window and a pentice board, and a small attic window. The west elevation abuts the neighbouring property.

INTERIOR: the timber frame is exposed through most of the interior and includes stop chamfered beams in the ground and first floor rooms. Some vernacular fixtures survive, such as plank and batten doors. Evidence of a C17 architectural paint scheme can be found in several parts of the building and is likely to be original to the time of construction.

Features of note at the ground floor include the chimney breasts and fireplaces. These include back-to-back brick inglenooks in numbers 5 and 7 (originally the parlour and hall respectively). They have timber lintels and their overmantles were constructed with reused C14 gothic stonework embedded in them. The fireplace in number 7 includes a built-in ‘copper’, likely to have been introduced when the building was subdivided in the C19. A blocked three-light rectangular ovolo-moulded C17 window with painted iron saddlebars is embedded in the western gable wall. C19 brick floors survive in the same room.

At first floor level fireplaces with moulded stone surrounds survive in the rooms at numbers 5 and 7. That in number 5 has a C18 cast iron hourglass grate, a fire surround with moulded jambs that may have been reused from Buckden Palace, and a stone overmantle with an ogee moulded shelf. The exposed timber frame of the western gable wall at this level is especially heavy and includes very broad down braces and a small blocked window, perhaps predating the C17. The first floor room in number 7 (the hall chamber) contains C17 painted scrollwork in the overmantle, and some painted drop pendants on daub infill on the south wall.

The extent of the C17 architectural paint scheme is unknown, but fragments occur in the ground floor rooms of numbers 5 and 7, and in the first floor room of number 7. Elements of the scheme include grey-black painted timbers, decorative scroll work, and ‘pendants’ painted onto the in-fill between timbers.

There are three staircases, the largest of which is a dog-leg stair contained within the upper two storeys of a projecting gabled compartment in the centre of the south elevation. At the ground floor this compartment contains a blocked window with a painted iron saddlebar similar to that in the in the west wall.

History

The building at 5, 7, and 9 Church Street is a predominantly C17 structure, though there is evidence to suggest that parts of it have been constructed reusing fabric from an earlier building. By the mid-C17 the building had been formed as a single farmhouse. At that time Buckden was a well-established village distinguished by the presence of an episcopal palace for the wealthy Diocese of Lincoln, and as a staging post on the Great North Road (the present High Street). The house was substantial in size and built in the centre of this significant settlement.

In its C17 form the building was three structural bays in length and two storeys high with an attic floor. It was arranged around a lobby entry plan with a large brick chimney stack and ground floor inglenook fireplaces. The construction of the chimney stack reused carved stonework which is likely to have been taken from C14 parts of the bishop’s palace, perhaps coinciding with the demolitions which took place there during the C17, the most extensive phase of which took place during the Commonwealth period (1649-1660). The chimney stack at ground floor is likely to have divided the parlour at the west end (number 5) from the hall in the centre (number 7), while the east end of the building appears to have been unheated and may have provided service accommodation.

A C17 scheme of painted decoration has been partially uncovered. The scheme incorporated some decorative patterns of scrollwork, and pendant motifs as well as a ‘plain scheme’ of more restrained character. The plain scheme imposed regular stripes of grey-black pigment over the exposed vertical studs of the structural frame and was probably differentiated with white paint on the in-fill panels. Plain schemes are thought to have been a popular mode of domestic decoration used in households of a ‘substantial middling’ status. They displayed taste and decorative flair, and emphasised the expensive close-studding of the timber frame. Although there is some evidence for the painting of timbers in the medieval period, the use of plain schemes emerged in the early C17. Schemes with elaboration, such as the pendants and scrolls, are thought to date more commonly from the mid-C17 onwards. Though the painted decoration of this house may have been typical in the C17, the survival of such schemes to the present day is less common.

In the C19 the house was converted to three separate dwellings: 5, 7, and 9 Church Street. The conversion of vernacular farmhouses in village locations to tenement accommodation was common in this period and reflects the social history of the time. The conversion of the inglenook fireplace in the former hall of the house to contain a copper boiler more commonly found in a kitchen or scullery shows the decline of status this entailed. Number 9 underwent extensive alteration and a pair of shop front bay windows was inserted at the ground floor. The accretion of small extensions and minor internal alterations continued throughout the C20.

Reasons for Listing

5, 7 and 9, Church Street, a C17 vernacular farmhouse subdivided and extended during the C19 and further modified in the C20 and C21, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* for its construction making use of timber, lath and daub, and clay tiles, exhibiting local distinctiveness in its materials and craftsmanship;
* for the high proportion of survival of the C17 lobby entry plan form;
* for the unusually extensive evidence of an original C17 plain scheme of painted decoration, alongside focused elements of decorative paintwork.

Historic interest:

* as a C17 farmhouse surviving in a relatively complete form;
* for the survival of stonework from Buckden Palace that has been incorporated into the building, illustrating an episode in the revolutionary changes that occurred as part of the upheavals in English government and society between 1640 and 1660.

External Links

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