Old Town House and Old Town Cottage

Details

LINGFIELD

188/9/169
11-JUN-58

CHURCH ROAD
Old Town House and Old Town Cottage

(Formerly listed as:
CHURCH ROAD
OLD TOWN HOUSE)
(Formerly listed as:
CHURCH ROAD
OLD TOWN COTTAGE ADJOINING TO NORTH)

II*
House, subdivided, the south part was formerly village stores. The north part is late-C16 with C17 alterations and extensions, partly underbuilt c1800. The south part of Old Town House was designed by Leonard Stokes in Vernacular Revival style following a fire in 1908. The builder was JJ Williams.

MATERIALS: Old Town Cottage and the north wing of Old Town House are timberframed, the upper floors clad in tile-hanging, the ground floor underbuilt in brick with tiled roof and brick chimneystacks, one corbelled. The south part of Old Town House is also timber-framed with plastered infill on stone plinth and has a tiled roof with brick chimneystack.

PLAN: Forms an L-shape. The north wing of Old Town House was originally jettied on the north and east sides but later underbuilt. The original south part of Old Town House was demolished following a fire and replaced with a house which originally had a purpose-built shop to the east.

EXTERIOR: The north wing of Old Town House is late-C16. The north side has a large attic gable projecting on a moulded bressumer with brackets with cushion and spike pendants. There is a C16 five-light mullioned and transomed window with leaded lights and moulded base supported on squat scrolled brackets. A further first floor window has been blocked externally but is visible internally. The ground floor has c1800 Flemish bond brickwork with a triple mullioned window and doorcase. The east return has a tile-hung gable with triple mullioned windows to the first floor and an early-C20 shop front of three panels of eight panes. The rest of the east side is of circa 1908. The upper floor has close-studding and two gabled dormers with four light windows with leaded lights and herringbone pattern infill. The moulded bressumer overhangs the ground floor, which has further close-studding with a midrail, and at the northern end is a full-height multipane former shopfront and former doorcase which retains the leaded flat hood but was converted into a window in the 1960s. At the south end is a casement window which wraps around the south-east corner. The south front has a large gable with a pattern of close-studding and four ogee braces. The upper floor has a four-light casement window. The first floor has a moulded bressumer overhanging the ground floor and a left side doorcase with traceried rectangular fanlight and half-glazed door. The west elevation has a timberframed gable at the north end with box framing and two curved braces, three-light casement to the first floor and three-light mullioned and transomed casement to the ground floor. Adjoining to the south is a flat-roofed tile-hung dormer and catslide roof to the ground floor, which is of brick in Flemish bond with one casement window and a rear door.

Old Town Cottage is attached to the north-east. Its north side is tile-hung with a gable to the west and the ground floor is a mixture of brickwork and stone with C20 triple mullioned or mullioned and transomed casements with leaded lights. The south side is of similar materials.

INTERIOR: Entrance into Old Town House from the south side leads into a hall containing an early-C20 staircase with solid panels and square newel post, but earlier stick balusters may remain underneath. The south-western ground floor room has the original early-C20 wooden shutters to the shopfront. The fireplace, early-C20 with eared architraves and swag frieze, was introduced c1963 when the ground floor ceased to be a shop. The north-east room has a chamfered dragon beam and the diagonal floor joists of the original jetties. The north-west room has a chamfered spine beam and floor joists with lamb's tongue stops. There are also mortice holes in an axial beam which are evidence for a former internal partition. Upstairs two north rooms have exposed timberframing and the north-east room has a blocked three-light mullioned window. The interior of Old Town Cottage was not inspected.

HISTORY: Old Town Cottage and the north wing of Old Town House are of late-C16 date. By the turn of the C20 the south part of Old Town House was a grocery and provisions and wine and spirit store. Old photographs show the south part of the building had a projecting M-shaped tile-hung gable with shopfront below and the south end was recessed with a canted bay window on the ground floor. During the early hours of Sunday 22 March 1908 a fire broke out in the shop, caused by an overturned lamp. The Lingfield Fire Brigade managed to save the adjoining cottage to the north but the south part of the building was severely damaged by the fire. The architect Leonard Stokes submitted plans on behalf of the brewery owners of the building to Godstone Rural District in July 1908 for the proposed rebuilding of the stores. The East Grinstead Observer of 12 September 1908 stated that the Old Town Stores "are to be rebuilt entirely in the olden style to correspond with the surrounding architecture of this picturesque part of the village". The building was not rebuilt as a facsimile of the original. The south part was now set back behind the C16 north gable and the whole of its west front was in line and had an ornamental timber frame with ogee braces, moulded bressumer, two small gables and purpose-built shopfronts. In 1963 the shop ceased trading and as the ground floor of the south part of the building became residential the original shop doorway north of the shopfront was converted into a window.

SOURCES:
Leonard Stokes original drawings of 1908.
East Grinstead Observer 12th September 1908.

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: Old Town House and Old Town Cottage are listed at Grade II* for the following principal reasons:
* Old Town Cottage and the north part of Old Town House comprise a late-C16 timber-framed house retaining much original fabric, including the dragon beam and joists of the original jetties, chamfered spine beams and floor joists, wall framing and original windows;
* The south part of Old Town House is an unusual Vernacular Revival style shop and house by the notable architect Leonard Stokes replacing an earlier timber-framed building destroyed by fire in 1908;
* Both buildings form part of a group of listed buildings in the historic centre of Lingfield.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

287410

Legacy System:

LBS

End of official list entry

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