Corunna House, 42 and 44 Ousegate

Summary

Town house, early C18, altered C19, C20 and C21.

History

Selby as a settlement dates to the Anglo-Saxon period, when it was known as Seletun (old Scandinavian for ‘sallow tree settlement’) and was referred by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle of AD 779. A charter of about 1030 called it Seleby and about 1050 it was Selbi. King Henry I was born in Selby in 1068 and, a year later, Benedict, a French monk from Auxerre, obtained permission from King William to establish an Abbey. The Market Place has existed since the early C14. By the C15, Selby had developed thriving trade links along the East Coast and with the Low Countries. Selby Abbey succumbed to dissolution in 1539, and the core of the building became the parish church in 1618.

Selby’s commercial importance grew dramatically following the opening of the Selby Canal in 1778, becoming a notable inland port; however, after the building of Goole Docks in 1826, it suffered a very rapid decline. The town’s fortunes recovered in 1834, with the opening of the Leeds and Selby Railway, and by the early C20, witnessed a growth in several industries served by the railways and river traffic, including: flour milling, malting, oilseed milling and cattle feed production. In 1983, coal production commenced from the Selby Coalfield. Shipbuilding ended ten years later, and coal mining ceased in 2004. Since then, there has been a gradual reduction in the traditional industries, although some remain.

The name Ousegate may have a Viking origin, as the suffix ‘gate’ is derived from the old Norse word ‘gatta’ meaning street. Ousegate is the historic riverfront street of Selby and remained an important area of commercial activity well into the C20.

The origins of Corunna House are unclear; however, given the width of number 44, it probably replaced two late-medieval or C17 houses that conformed to the pattern set by the burgage plots along the river front. Number 42 appears to be a pre-existing C17 house that matches the width of a burgage plot and was combined with the new number 42, when a fashionable early-C18 façade was built for Richard Pearson sometime before 1724, giving the property the appearance of being a single house. The carriage gateway appears to be secondary, as it interrupts the symmetry of the fashionable façade and cuts across one of the break-forwards of the elevation; it may have replaced a window to the left and an off-set door to the right. The 1849 1:1,056 Ordnance Survey town plan also indicates that this was originally only a pedestrian access to the rear. The burgage plots to the rear of number 44 (occupied by a variety of former small warehouses) were cleared to form a walled garden and to allow the construction of a rear service range attached to number 42. In the 1850s, Richard Taylor opened the private Ousegate School at the house, which continued to operate until 1926. Apparently, it was at this time that the property was named Corunna House, and it was probably when the rear extension to number 44 was built (in place on the 1891 1:500 town plan). The building was listed, at Grade II*, in 1952.

In addition to the school, in the early C20 J M Brewins and Sons had a bakery and confectionery business that occupied rear premises and the ground floor of number 42, and it had a glazed shopfront extending out over the pavement. This was demolished in the early 1980s, when Corunna House became a club called Garbo’s, and the frontage was restored. The rear premises were converted into dwellings forming Corunna Court, in the late 1990s.

Details

Town House, early-C18 with possible earlier origins, altered in the C19 and C20.

MATERIALS: fair-faced brown clamp bricks, pantile roofs (with lead flat to main range), timber windows.

PLAN: principal range aligned north-west to south-east (fronting Ousegate), with attached rear ranges.

EXTERIOR: the two storey, eight-bay main facade breaks forwards in bays 3 and 6 (and bay 5 at ground-floor), and has painted rusticated brick quoins, low semi-ovolo moulded plinth and moulded wooden eaves cornice supported by cut brackets. Entrance in bay 3 and basket-arched carriage entry in bays 5 and 6 (with shouldered timber gates topped with iron spikes). The doorway is approached by three ashlar steps and has a shell hood on richly moulded acanthus consoles, with drop finials and an acanthus moulded architrave to the hood. Door with six fielded panels and an oblong eight-pane fanlight.

Windows are flush-framed 12-pane sashes with painted stone sills and rubbed-brick lintels (lower two right-hand windows reinstated in rebuilt brickwork after removal of C20 shopfront). Some have later bullseye panes. Hipped roof with visible rear stacks, and lead flat to left half of ridge. Small dormer to number 42; lead eaves gutter has cast-iron downpipes at either end.

A passageway allows access to the rear, which has similar eaves details in the angle between numbers 44 and 42. The rear wall of number 42 is rendered brick, with projecting Gothic initials 'R T' in the gable, small eaves window and first-floor 12-pane Yorkshire sash. The ridge has two chimney stacks set close behind the ridge to the front range. Number 44 has a large hipped, flat-roofed rear wing under the lead flat, and also has two similar chimney stacks on the west side of the flat, and one on the east side.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

325817

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Morrell, WW, The History and Antiquities of Selby, (1867)
Milsom, P, A History of Corunna House, (March 1997), pp 01-10
Chilvers, R, Selby Shops Past and Present, (2015), 47
Chrystal, P, Selby & Goole Through Time, (2012), 48

Other
1:1056 Town Map, 1849
1:500 Town Map, 1890-9

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