Goldrings and attached buildings to rear, Midhurst, West Sussex

Summary

C18 house, now with ground floor shops, re-fronted mid-to later C19; attached kitchen, late C17 or C18 on an earlier base, and stables, probably C19, all on an earlier plot within the medieval town.

Description

MATERIALS: limestone rubble, the lower rear wall enriched with galletting, and with red brick dressings. The front elevation is re-fronted or rebuilt in grey brick with red brick dressings; the ground floor is painted. The eastern gable wall has been cement rendered and lined as ashlar. The western elevation of the kitchen wing is also rendered. Tile-hung dormer windows, tile roofs.

PLAN: main range in two storeys and attics and five symmetrical bays. Rear stair bay to south-east under gabled roof. Attached to this a two-storey wing housing the kitchen, with a small cellar beneath part of it, and beyond it a later single-storey stable and tack room with a hayloft above it.

EXTERIOR: ground floor right-hand and first floor windows are rectangular two-light timber casements with slightly pointed arched heads, in the C18 openings and with finely-jointed red brick arches and pronounced keystones in a C18 manner. The upper floor windows are set back between deep red brick panels. The shop front is of four-over-four pane fixed lights in a moulded architrave. Stone flag steps rise to a central entrance in a simple moulded architrave beneath a shallow canopy. The doorcase has panelled linings and a 6-panel door with a central moulded muntin. Three full dormers have tile-hung cheeks and gables, plain bargeboards and three, two and three-light timber casements. Dormer roofs have crested ridges and tall terracotta finials. The main roof has a similar crested ridge between internal gable-end stacks which are also of grey and red brick. To the rear of the main range is an attached stair bay. This and the rear wall of the main range are of limestone rubble with galletting in the lower courses and have flush red brick quoins and window and door surrounds. The stair bay has a tiled gabled roof and a tile-hung rear wall and an inserted or enlarged later C19 casement to the eastern face. The wide rear door of the main range is of two leaves beneath an overlight. Windows are timber casements, one with a slightly pointed arched head matching those on the front elevation; some are later replacements. The eastern elevation of the two-storey kitchen range has a limestone rubble plinth and irregularly placed two-light casements, one with rectangular leaded panes, in simple, flush red brick surrounds. There is a blocked first floor opening at the junction of this wing and the stair bay. The western elevation has a door of four flush moulded panels beneath a deep canopy and replaced casement windows. The attached stable block is also of limestone rubble with red brick quoins, beneath a hipped tile roof and has a tall stable door beneath an overlight. The tack room is lit by a casement window in the east elevation. Above it is a tile-hung dormer entrance to the hay loft.

INTERIOR: house: wide central through passage with stone flag floors, with doors leading off it in a symmetrical C18 manner. To the right, a ground floor chimneypiece (possibly later C19) is said to survive behind shop shelves. To the rear the C18 plan and fittings are evident in the corner stack with a moulded timber surround, sections of panelled dado, and a door frame with a door of two moulded panels with HL hinges and stone flag floors. The front left hand room has a remnant of C18 cyma moulded cornice. The stair bay has a closed string dog-leg stair with square newels, turned balusters and a moulded rail, the original stair rising to the first floor; the stair bay has a panelled dado with a blocked doorway, in a position typical of the C18, at the head of stair. Dado panelling is in situ on the inner landing where one doorcase has a simple C18 architrave, and a door of 2 fielded panels facing the stair, plain panels to the rear and HL hinges. The remainder of the main building was not accessible but some rooms are thought to retain their fireplaces.

Kitchen wing. Stone-flagged passage leading to an internal six-panel door. Kitchen has a boxed tie beam supported on a chamfered post, a wide, arched opening to the hearth with a moulded architrave, altered, moulded, panelled wainscotting, and shutters and cupboards with HL and butterfly hinges.

Stable. Brick, stone flag and tile flooring to stable which has a timber hay rack and feeding trough and leads to a rear tack room with limewashed walls and ceiling, with a hayloft above.

History

Goldrings lies to the south side of West Street, one of the main historic streets in Midhurst that lead to the square and medieval parish church. Midhurst is of C13 foundation and rich in C15 and later buildings. The house fronts the road and opens onto a small yard at the rear which is enclosed by the kitchen wing, which is attached to the rear stair bay, and stable block. Beyond the yard is a detached coach house or stable. This historic plan, with the rear buildings extending the full depth of a plot, is unusually intact and echoes the medieval configuration where the kitchen was commonly detached from the main house and placed at the rear of a plot. Although it is not included in the listing as it has been altered, the C18 and C19 detached stables /coach house, now workshops, adds to the significance of Goldrings as a whole, since commonly the rear of these historic urban plots has been redeveloped. It and the adjacent site of JE Allnutt provide valuable information on the development of historic plots within the medieval town.

The house appears to be C18 in date and was re-fronted in the mid- to later C19. It is likely that it replaced an earlier building on the site. The wide central stone-flagged passage suggests it may have had a commercial as well as domestic use. The rear wing appears to survive from an earlier phase of building.

Reasons for Listing

* Architectural interest: C18 town house, on an earlier plot, with C17/C18 kitchen wing and attached later C19 stables;
* Materials: glazed brick C19 facade over formal C18 brick front; vernacular rear and side elevations in limestone rubble with flint galleting;
* Plan: C18 two-storey, single pile house with symmetrical street frontage and rear stair bay and wide central through passage leading to rear yard. Earlier kitchen wing to rear, partly above cellar. Attached stables, tack room and hayloft to rear;
* Fittings: C18 dog-leg stair, chimney breasts, dados doorcases and doors. Kitchen wing has large late C17/early C18 fireplace, wainscotting, shutters and cupboards. Stables have brick tile llors and wooden fittings;
* Historic interest: unusually intact site which demonstrates the evolution of a plot in the medieval town centre.

External Links

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