Listing Text

THORNE

1486/0/10011 MARKET PLACE
08-NOV-05 1 AND 2

II
Former house, then shop units, unoccupied at the time of inspection. Mid- and late-C17, with mid-C18 remodelling and C19 and C20 additions and alterations. Rendered brick under pantile roof. Two storeys plus dormers on a corner plot. Divided into two shop units, one occupying No 2 Market Place and the other, No 1 Market Place which extends round the corner to Silver Street.

PLAN: The floor plan can be summarised as two units on the Market Place side, with a rear wing extending along Silver Street having 4 bays, and an internal range extending behind this to beyond No 2. The outer end of this range has been demolished.

EXTERIOR: The Market Place frontage has 5 first floor windows, 2 at No 2 and 3 at No 1. No 2 has a boarded up shop front at ground floor, two first floor C18 window openings with keystone lintels and later sashes, and a central dormer. To the right of No 1 is a slightly projecting bay, central to the whole facade, with a door and first floor window, and a truncated pediment above. To the right again is a ground floor shop front, two first floor windows and a gable as in No 2. The corner is cut off and the entrance to No 2 is on the corner, with the roof wrapping round above. The Silver Street facade has shop windows below a range of 4 windows similar to those on Market Place, and 2 dormer windows. The rear of the building has exposed brickwork of 2" bricks, dentil brick course to the eaves and a C18 doorway with raised and fielded panels.

INTERIOR: Entrance lobby in centre of Market Street frontage with external door of late C17/early C18, mid-C17 internal doors and surrounds and high-quality architrave to door into No 2, this broken off at the base. Room to left (no 2, former chip shop) has a large chimney stack of 2" rubbed brick with a surviving arch to the rear of the entrance, partly concealed behind C21 plasterboard partition. Partly boxed oak beam with chamfers and stops, one at fireplace end. C18 plaster ceiling recently removed exposing reed backing and earlier oak joists with chamfers. C21 partition divides this room from passage with raised and fielded panelling partition to next door and below main stairway. Room to right (no 1, former ironmongers) has oak beam, exposed ceiling joists with chamfers and stop chamfers, mid-C18 architraves, panelling and flush boarding, and a timber wallplate. Jacob's ladder and hatch to room above. Room behind (rear part of no 1): large oak wall plate at floor level, C19 cast iron columns supporting ceiling in place of now-removed structural walls, mid-C18 doorway to rear stair, arch to rear room with mid-C18 double fillet ovulo moulding, late C19 rear door with stained glass panel above. Staircase behind front room partition to rear of No 2, of mid-C18 date with raised and fielded panelling, originally with alternating fluted and plain oak balusters, mostly detached but still present on site. Room to rear of staircase has C18 architraves to blocked doors, oak ceiling joist with chamfers, large chimney stack with fireplace now removed and damaged and C19 window. Second staircase with a moulded handrail and other good quality detail and shallow gradient, balusters missing. Rooms extending behind adjacent property (no. 3), of lesser quality. Mid-C18 detailing to first floor rooms includes several window frames, a hatch to a store above, lime ash floors, cornices and skirtings. The room at the corner of No 1 has a finely detailed C18 fireplace with bolection moulding, a section of C18 cornice, good quality panelling, Tuscan sweep moulding on the shutters of the contemporary window surround and carved detailing on cupboard door surround to right of the fireplace. A room above the rear of No 1 has a Pantheon block cornice dating to 1740-60, and an architrave and shutters of similar date. Ceiling beam, oak floor beam and joists possibly C17. The rooms to the rear of the large chimney stack in the centre are of lesser quality, with a single C19 fireplace surviving. The far corner room has an exposed roof truss of late C17 or early C18 date.

HISTORY: The earliest part of the building is thought to be the two front units on Market Place, which retain the plan form of an early dwelling, with a central fireplace, lobby entrance and a room to either side. This is of C17 or possibly earlier date. The rear part of No 1, extending along Silver Street, also appears to be of C17 date, seemingly built as a separate dwelling. The long rear wing extending behind properties further along Market Place appears to date from the late C17 or early C18. In the mid- C18 a major refurbishment of the building appears to have taken place, with the replacement of windows and doors, the filling in of an area between the original Market Place block and the rear wing, the construction of two staircases and possibly the division of the building into two separate parts. Further alterations occurred in the C19 and C20, including commercial use of the ground floor.

SOURCES: R Light, Prof. D Cruickshank et al for South Yorkshire Building Preservation Trust "1 & 2 Market Place, Thorne, Feasibility Study" 2000

SUMMARY OF IMPORTANCE
These buildings are of special architectural interest in that they represent the substantial survival in Thorne town centre of a C17 lobby entrance plan house, remodelled and extended in the mid-C18. Despite their unremarkable external appearance, they retain much early fabric, and significant internal features, including a C17 fireplace and two C18 century staircases. The C18 refinement of earlier fabric and plan form is important evidence of the transition from vernacular to polite architectural form in an urban context.