6, The Crescent

Summary

Townhouse, late-C18 to early-C19, with C20 and C21 alterations.

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.

6 The Crescent, Selby, also known as Park House was built as a private residence by the prominent Selby ship-owner James Audus the Elder (1752-1809). Although it was attached to number 5, The Crescent, it was built at 90 degrees to the rest of the terrace and faced south-west, overlooking a private garden and the Little Park (later known as Selby Park). Construction work on The Crescent commenced in the mid-1790s as a speculative development by James Audus the elder, who had been inspired by Lansdowne Crescent, Bath. It was designed as a fashionable and elegant entry into Selby by his son James, an amateur architect, and it was not completed until after his father's death.

Details

Townhouse, late-C18 to early-C19, with C20 and C21 alterations.

MATERIALS: fair-faced English-bond brick, painted stucco and plain ashlar dressings, with Welsh slate clad roofs. The secondary bathroom range is built of fair-faced brick in English garden wall bond.

PLAN: the main body of the house has a rhomboid-plan with a projecting extension, which gives an overall L-plan; the main elevation faces south-west.

EXTERIOR: the main range is of five bays and is entered by a central panelled door beneath a rectangular fanlight with vertical glazing bars, set within a doorcase with panelled reveals. The door is flanked by plain Tuscan pilasters forming part of a porch, supported by a pair of fluted Tuscan columns with a plain entablature. Situated to either side of the doorway is a pair of slightly recessed 12-light (six-over-six) sash windows without horns, with partially exposed sash boxes, painted sills, stucco voussoirs, and gadrooned keystones. The five identical windows that light the first-floor, rest on a continuous sill band, which wraps around the north-west side elevation. The north-west elevation has two similar sash windows with raised voussoirs to each floor and are offset to the left. A basket-arched passageway situated at the extreme left-hand side of the north-west elevation allows passage from The Crescent to Park Row; it has a classical-style wooden doorcase, consisting of panelled pilasters, fluted consoles and a dentilled closed pediment, with panelled reveals and a blind semi-circular fanlight.

The roof of the main range is obscured by a coped parapet to the main and north-west elevations, which rises in a curve to the junction with the roof line of 5 The Crescent. It has three brick chimney stacks, a gable to the south-east that has raised and coped verges with plain coped brick kneelers, and a partially exposed gable to the north-east with a coped verge terminating in an ashlar kneeler. The roof is drained by obscured gutters that emerge through the parapet walls into cast-iron downpipes with chamfered storm boxes, and by a cast-iron eaves gutter to the rear. The rear elevation of the main range has two off-set 12-light sash windows with painted sills and plain brick lintels, a small rear door, a tall stair window with a semi-circular brick arch. The passageway from The Crescent emerges through a plain basket arch open doorway to the right.

The early-C19 two-storey, two-bay extension is set back slightly from the main elevation and is lower in height. Each floor has two 16-light (eight-over-eight) sash windows that rest on painted ashlar sills and have gadrooned keystones. The blind south-east gable has a four-panelled door, offset to the right. The rear elevation has a pair of modern multi-pane sash windows to the ground floor. The remainder of the elevation is obscured by a secondary, late-1890s two-storey rectangular-plan bathroom and toilet range, which has an obscured flat roof and small casement windows with segmental brick lintels and painted sills to both floors. The slate-clad gable roof has a tall central brick chimney stack and a coped gable verge that terminates in ashlar kneelers.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

325722

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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