6, Market Street

Summary

An early-C17 building likely to have been constructed as a house and workshop, now used as a restaurant.

Reasons for Designation

6 Market Street, North Walsham, an early-C17 building likely to have been constructed as a house and workshop, now used as a restaurant, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* for the good survival of the building’s rear range as an example of the early C17 architecture of North Walsham;
* for the high quality of the internal features found in the front range;
* for the craftsmanship of the building’s timber framed features.

Historic interest:

* as one of the earliest buildings constructed in North Walsham following the fire of 1600.

Group value:

* for its physical attachment to the Grade II-listed building at 8 Market Street, with which it shares an historic function as a commercial building with domestic accommodation.

History

The settlement of (North) Walsham was owned by the Abbey of St Benet at Holme by the early C11 and was recorded in the Domesday survey (1086). The town had an established market by 1275, helped by the local wool trade, especially following the arrival of Flemish weavers in the C14. Lightweight ‘Walsham’ cloth reflects the town’s significant position in the wool and weaving industry. The large size of the medieval parish church of St Nicholas expresses some of the prosperity derived from the trade.

Much of the town’s medieval fabric was destroyed by fire in the summer of 1600, including 118 houses, 70 shops and warehouses, and even more barns, stables, malthouses and outhouses. The town changed in the reconstruction, with new building styles and materials used, but the layout of the marketplace and the narrow width of plots remained. Despite the declining wool trade, the town remained a significant market centre as an agricultural trading point and, from the early C19, a place of manufacturing. The North Walsham and Dilham Canal was opened in 1826, and by the end of the C19 the town had two railway stations.

Dendrochronological analysis of the roof timbers, first-floor and cellar ceiling frames show that the structure of 6 Market Street was assembled using wood felled in around 1600. Its construction is very likely to have been a consequence of the fire in Walsham that year and probably replaces an earlier building(s) on this site. The mixture of brick and flint walling seen especially in the lower portions of the rear range could indicate the reuse of earlier material.

The original function of the building is not documented, but the large C17 windows of the upper storeys to the rear suggest it could have included a weavers’ workshop, alongside higher-status accommodation at ground-floor level and in the front range facing on to Market Street.

In the late C19, the rear range was in use as the Horse Shoes Inn (from 1865 to 1904). The front range appears to have been a tailor in 1861, a confectioners in 1871, and a tin plate workers/ironmongers in 1881 and 1891. It was operating as Blyth’s ironmongers and furniture stores from 1910 until at least 1937. At that time the shopfront only occupied the central bay of the building.

By the 2010s the building was in a derelict state. Between 2018 and 2020, an extensive period of refurbishment brought the building back in to use. As part of that process an early-C20 warehouse attached to the east of the building was converted to become an open yard; its roof was removed and a small conservatory was created closer to the principal structure.

Details

An early-C17 building likely to have been constructed as a house and workshop, now used as a restaurant.

MATERIALS: the building is constructed of brick, with some limited areas of flint rubble. The oak-framed roofs are covered in pantiles.

PLAN: the plan has been altered to accommodate two storeys of restaurant use and ancillary spaces.

EXTERIOR: the principal elevation faces south on to Market Street. It is two storeys high and three bays wide. The steeply pitched roof is covered in pantiles. The wall is faced in early-C19 brick. There are three six-over-six wooden sash windows at the first floor. At ground floor, the left-hand bay is a yard entrance with a depressed, gauged-brick arch. The shopfront (two-right hand bays) is symmetrical with a central door between four large panes of glass on each side (left of the door dates from the C19, the right-hand side is a C20 addition). There are wooden risers, and retractable canopies.

Over the yard entrance, on the north side, the wall is made of a mixture of C17 brick and flint rubble. Above the archway is a blocked window with a moulded pediment.

The rear range is several bays long and two storeys high. It has a pitched roof covered in pantiles. Its west elevation faces onto the rear yard. The walls are a mixture of brick and flint, with a greater amount of flint north of a slight cant in the building line, suggesting a change in phasing. A moulded brick string course divides the storeys. At ground floor there are two glazed early-C21 shopfront windows. To the left-hand side of these are two older pine-framed windows, the smaller has only a single light, the larger is an eight-light mullion and transom window. At first floor there are at least three blocked openings, alongside a five-light window with an early-C21 wooden frame, and an older two-light casement.

The north elevation is a plain gable of red brick laid in English bond. There is a small amount of galleted flint at the lowest parts of the wall. There is a C21 door in a C19 opening at ground floor, alongside patches of altered brickwork which suggest repeated changes to the earlier doorways here. At first floor is a five-light C17 mullion window with a heavily moulded weather detail above. At attic level is an altered four-light window. There are early-C21 tie bars between each storey, and between the first and second floor is a brick string course.

The east elevation of the rear range has been re-faced in late-C20 brick and is structurally connected by steel beams to the neighbouring site. Original C17 wooden window frames can be seen at first floor (three-light, five-light and two-light). At ground-floor level there is a single-storey late-C20 brick-built extension.

The east gable of the Market Street range shows original C17 brickwork, an exposed tie beam in the upper part of the gable, a brick stringcourse, and evidence of a former late-C19 or early-C20 chimney which has now been truncated.

INTERIOR: the building’s historic plan has been altered to support its changing commercial uses. The staircases and circulation were most recently replaced in the C21.

At ground floor some of the historic timber frame is visible. Within the rear range there are quarter-round moulded beams with lamb’s tongue stops, suggesting a relatively high-status function took place here historically.

At first floor in the Market Street range there are two fireplaces with arch-plate grates. In the rear range there are wide oak floorboards. The rear of the first floor shows a good deal of the timber frame, including finely chamfered joists with stops, and some unchamfered elements with visible carpenters’ marks in the end bays.

The front range roof structure has three principal-rafter and slightly cranked collar trusses, between which are two sets of purlins, windbraces, and common rafters; the truss in the gable end also has a tiebeam.

The roof over the rear range consists of six principal-rafter and collar trusses, between which are two sets of purlins, windbraces, and common rafters.

The two-cell basement has a brick and pamment floor, and chamfered ceiling beams with carved stops.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

222830

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Websites
North Walsham Archive, accessed 4 March 2024 from www.northwalshamarchive.co.uk
Norfolk Pubs online archive, accessed 4 March 2024 from www.norfolkpubs.co.uk

Other
The Shambles, 6 Market Street, North Walsham, Norfolk: Tree-ring Dating of Oak Timbers - Research Report Series no.3-2022 (Alison Arnold, Robert Howard and Cathy Tyers for Historic England, 18 March 2022).

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