9 and 11 Black Abbey Street (including 1 Jacob Street) and associated boundary walls and setted access, Accrington, Lancashire

Summary

House and a back-to-back pair of cottages (including first-floor workshop) with a former cellar dwelling, of 1839 to 1844, with later alterations.

Description

House and pair of back-to-back cottages including first-floor workshop, with former cellar dwelling, between 1839 and 1844 for Joseph Lang.

MATERIALS: buff sandstone, welsh slate.

PLAN: number 9 double-pile with passageway at the right and spine stair, number 11 single-depth with single-depth cottage (number 1) and cellar to rear.

EXTERIOR: standing at the corner of Black Abbey Street and Jacob Street, abutted to the east by an altered mirror pair (not included).

The front faces north and is watershot (in 2020, painted). Each house is two bays wide, with two stacked windows at the left, and the doorway with squared surround to the right (ground-floor openings boarded in 2020 at number 11 and replacements at number 9). Number 9 has an overlight transom to the doorway with moulded modillion cornice. The eaves have stone gutter-corbels.

The west wall is gabled and watershot in diminishing courses, with only number 1 (to the right) painted. There are stacked doorways central to the gable (that is, against the party wall), the entrance accessed by three stone steps, with a put-log for a hoist above. There are three stacked windows to the right (the cellar window being blocked and the others replacements).

The rear (south) wall is two-and-a-half storeys tall, with stone gutter-corbels. Number 1 has a first-floor window at the right with possible blocked doorway at the left, and the ground floor has two windows at the left with a blocked doorway to the right. Number 9 has a basement-and-ground-floor rear outshut in random-coursed stone, raised in brick.

INTERIOR: number 9 retains its floor plan including stone stair, and wide early-C19 floorboards, chimney breasts and some doors and hinges. The attic and cellar of number 9 were not inspected. Number 1 retains its plan-form, stone stair, plank doors, cellar accessed by stone steps with stone shelves, and range fireplace. Number 11 was not inspected (except for its attic) and the cellar to Number 1 was not inspected. All of the roof structure to numbers 11 and 1 appears to be of machine-sawn timbers.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: the rear garden wall retains the blocked openings for the rear ashpits and coal bunkers, which do not survive. The setted back street also forms part of the item, although under different ownership.

History

The land on which numbers 5, 7, 9 and 11 Black Abbey Street were built was bought by Joseph Lang in July 1839, and they were built soon afterwards (before 1844). A deeds plan of 1860 shows that number 11 formed a back-to-back pair with 1 Jacob Street. The properties have cellars, being three storeys tall at the rear. Although a deeds plan of 1860 notes only the cellar below 1 Jacob Street as a separate dwelling, the numbers of households, houses and buildings recorded in the 1841 and 1851 censuses suggest the same was probably originally true of the cellar at number 9. Number 1 Jacob Street has blocked loading doors in its gable wall, and probably originally included commercial or industrial premises at first-floor level.

A deed of October 1930 records that in 1875, Robert Holt bought the block from Elizabeth Lang, who was presumably an heir of Joseph’s. Holt had begun his drapery business in 1839 at (historical) numbers 1 and 3 Black Abbey Street, adjacent to the east, and the business later knocked through the party walls between numbers 3, 5 and 7. All windows have been replaced. Number 9 has lost a (probably non-original) timber attic stair and two fireplaces, but appears relatively little-altered externally and internally, retaining wide, early-C19 floorboards, its floor plan (including an altered original basement-and-ground-floor rear outshut), stone stair, chimney breasts and some doors. The rear ashpits and coal bunkers have been removed, although the rear garden wall to 9 and 11 retains the blocked openings for these. Number 1 Jacob Street is relatively little-altered externally although it has lost a long rear outshut shown on the 1860 plan and modern OS mapping (probably a workshop, as the building scars suggest it was single-storey). Internally it may have a replacement roof structure, but retains its plan-form, stone stair, plank doors, cellar, and fireplace for a range.

Reasons for Listing

9 and 11 Black Abbey Street (including 1 Jacob Street), Accrington, a house and pair of back-to-back cottages with former cellar dwelling, of 1839 to 1844, and with later alterations, and associated boundary walls and setted access, are listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:
* houses built before 1844 and retaining the majority of their original form, and with features of interest including door and window dressings, stone stairs and shelving, joinery, chimney breasts and boundary walls and setted rear access;
* for the rarity of the back-to-back pair (including a first-floor workshop) and cellar dwelling as surviving examples of humble housing of types once very common in industrial Lancashire but usually outlawed after the 1848 Public Health Act.

External Links

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