46 and 48 Ousegate (formerly the Queens Vaults public house)

Summary

Former public house, 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 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 has remained an important area of commercial activity. Numbers 46 and 48 Ousegate form a single build constructed during the early C19 as a staging inn with accommodation for travellers, horses and carriages. It exploited the growth in trade arising from the opening of the Selby Toll Bridge and the turnpike roads, linking the West and North Ridings of Yorkshire. Given the width, the building probably replaced two late-medieval or C17 houses that conformed to the pattern set by the burgage plots along the riverfront. The yard to the rear, with its associated stables and warehouses, was accessed through a central carriageway arch. The yard ran along the rear of the properties to New Street and originally extended as far as the eastern boundary of Abbey Close, where there was formerly a gateway; however, by the 1930s, it had been reduced to half of its length. During the late C19 or early C20, a double-fronted shop window was established in the left-hand bay that forms number 48, and the public house occupied the two bays of number 46. During the late 1960s to early 1970s, the shop became a takeaway restaurant with a modern aluminium shop front and the public house gained a framed and braced door, and an enlarged eight-light window that was recessed back from the wall line. The public house closed during the early C21, and was formerly listed as the Queens Vaults Public House.

Details

Former public house, early C19, altered in the C20.

MATERIALS: painted brick main elevation, fair-faced brick gables, gabled roof clad in Welsh slate with ridge tiles.

PLAN: rectangular plan with central carriageway.

EXTERIOR: the three-storey, three-bay main elevation is built using colour-washed brick with a ground floor that has a central carriage entrance flanked by modern retail frontages. Number 46 has a slightly recessed modern timber and plywood public house frontage that has a framed facia board with moulded cornice, stylised pilasters, a framed and braced door to the left and an eight-light window to the right. Number 48 has a modern aluminium-framed takeaway shop front with a glazed two-panel door to the right. The central carriage entrance has a depressed brick arch that is closed by a pair of timber doors; the doors are rebated on either side of the jambs of the carriage passage. The first and second floors both have three flush-framed four-light sash windows, with slightly projecting sills and painted flat-brick lintels. The gabled roof has raised and stone coped gables rising from cut kneelers, with brick chimney stacks at their apex. Each chimney has projecting coping stones at its base. The roof of number 46 is drained by a cast-iron gutter attached to a facia that partially obscures a brick modillion eaves cornice. The ground and first floors undersail the roof of the adjacent Corunna House (numbers 42 and 44 Ousegate), with the fair-faced brick wall of the north gable rising above.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

325818

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Morrell, WW, The History and Antiquities of Selby, (1867)
Chilvers, R, Selby Shops Past and Present, (2015)
Chrystal, P, Selby & Goole Through Time, (2012)

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

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