19-22, Abbey Yard

Summary

Terrace of four former workers’ cottages, early C19, altered in the C20.

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 to 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 whole of the southern side of Abbey Yard was once lined by two-up/two-down terraced workers’ cottages, set between James Street and Back Park Street. The 1849 Ordnance Survey town map shows that originally 19 to 22 Abbey Yard formed part of a terrace of five cottages (numbers 18 to 22), which were flanked by back-to-back houses with a carriage passageway at the eastern end, giving access to a large commercial yard to the rear. In 1901, four adjacent back-to-back cottages were demolished and replaced by a new office building which was built against the west gable wall of number 22. By 1963, the buildings to the east had also been demolished, including number 18, necessitating the construction of a new external brick gable wall to number 19. The terrace currently (2024) functions as a furniture store for a nearby department store.

Details

Terrace of four former workers’ cottages, early C19, altered in the C20.

MATERIALS: hand-made red brick with a rebuilt gable of common brick, roof clad in replacement clay pantiles.

PLAN: a terrace aligned east-west.

EXTERIOR: four, one-bay, two-storey cottages in English Garden Wall bond brickwork. The orange-coloured brickwork of the east gable of number 19 is quoined into the front and rear walls. To the front, the ground floor of each cottage has a door to the right with a four-pane oblong fanlight (overboarded at number 20 painted, elsewhere), and to the left a sash window without horns or glazing bars. The first floor of each cottage is lit by a 16-pane sash window (retaining some historic glass), in a moulded frame. All windows have painted projecting stone sills and wedge lintels. Some render has been applied at the foot of the walls. Ogee cast-iron gutters, with downpipes to the three left-hand cottages. The ridge has half-round clay tiles.

The east wall is largely of late-C20 common bricks, with late-C19 fair-faced bricks at the right-hand angle, and in the gable. The verges have mortar fillets. The gable has a lead-dressed flat apex, with a set-back ridge stack of fair-faced bricks above a rendered plinth, with three terracotta chimney pots.

The rear has a similar appearance to the front, except for the reversed positions of the back doors, which are also flanked by a small rectangular window (mostly overboarded). The first-floor windows are Yorkshire sliding sashes with a mixture of eight and twelve panes. All openings have segmental brick lintels, without sills.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

325708

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Morrell, WW, The History and Antiquities of Selby, (1867)

Other
1:1056 Town Map, 1849
1:500 Town Map, 1890-91

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