Cygnet House

Summary

House, early C19, attached to an early to mid-C18 rear range, altered in the C19 and 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 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.

Church Lane was once an important medieval thoroughfare, providing access from the quays of the riverside to the Abbey Church and the marketplace. Its importance has diminished, and the road is now only used for limited vehicle access for residents of Gant Walk and the Abbey church, and as a pedestrian link between Church Hill and the town centre. The rear range of number 3 Church Lane appears to be the oldest part of the building, an early to mid-C18 house, which (typically for the period) has a steeply-pitched roof and is end-on to the street. The three-bay front range and the extension attached to the rear range are of an early C19 date and are shown on the 1849 Ordnance Survey town map. During the mid to late C20, the house was used as part of the offices of Selby District Council. The building was listed in 1980, as the Offices of Selby District Council. This building is now one of the few vernacular houses left in Selby from when the town was very densely packed with courtyard housing.

Details

House, early C19, attached to an early to mid-C18 rear range, altered in the C19 and C20.

MATERIALS: hand-made brick, clay pantile roofs.

PLAN: reverse S-plan, comprising front range facing south-east onto the street, with rear wing to the north-west with its own south-west extension.

EXTERIOR: facing south-east onto Church Lane. The two-storey, three-bay front wall is asymmetrical, with wider bays to the left, and is in Flemish Garden Wall bond brickwork. The entrance at the right is in a squared stone surround with chamfered jambs and prominent moulded cornice and has a recessed four-panelled door with plain fanlight. To the left are two windows, with three more stacked above the ground-floor openings. All the windows are vertical sashes with moulded cases, horns and no glazing bars, with stone wedge lintels and projecting sills.

The south-west gable has an outer skin of reclaimed historic bricks and is obscured at the ground floor by an attached range, and blind above this with a corbelled ridge chimney stack.

The north-east gable is also blind, and rendered with a corner buttress and a step below the eaves indicating a building was formerly attached here. At the first floor is a painted terracotta plaque featuring decorative tracery, which is inscribed: COMMUNITY - EDUCATION. The front pitch of the roof has a coped gable with a kneeler, while the rear pitch is uncoped and falls to lower rear eaves. Set back at the right, the north-east wall of the rear range has a pair of four-pane sash windows to each floor, and a modern part-glazed panelled door with a rectangular fanlight to the right; all beneath segmental, rubbed-brick lintels. A duo-pitched roof connects the rear roof of the front range to this gabled range, which has a ridge stack slightly to the left of centre, and sprocketed eaves.

The rear wall is stepped with mixed fenestration including vertically and horizontally-sliding sash windows, and catslide roofs. The south-west elevation is obscured.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

325717

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, 1890-9

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