53 55, HIGH STREET

Details

WARE TOWN

TL3514SE HIGH STREET 829-1/9/107 (South side) 08/05/50 Nos.53 AND 55

GV II

Formerly known as: No.53 and House over HIGH STREET. Former inn, subsequently a house, now commercial premises. C16, refaced and altered C17, C18 and C19. Timber-framed, stuccoed, fish-scale patterned tiled roof with Welsh slated margin and 3 gabled casement dormers. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys and attics, with jettied first floor carried on paired wooden brackets. 4 irregularly spaced flush-set sash windows with glazing bars, and exposed boxes with architrave surrounds on first floor. On ground floor, early C20 shopfront at left beneath jetty, No.52, has timber panelled stallriser, broad plate glass display windows in canted recess at right. Original ground floor level lowered at front to accommodate shop. Right of carriageway, No.55 has entrance doorway with 6 stone steps up to 6 fielded panelled door and rectangular fanlight in fielded panelled reveal; 2 flush sash windows on right with glazing bars, set in rusticated stuccoed wall. Cellar window. Central carriageway, with elliptical arch, has twin diagonally boarded doors with ramped moulded top rail. Wicket in left hand leaf with early C19 nameplate `Water Row' above. Timber studwork exposed in carriageway above tarred brick plinth, and protective painted boarding. Central binder and rafter exposed in soffit, and principal posts carrying rear of carriageway on brackets, extended further back early C19. Carriageway floor has cobbled margins, with raised granite spurstones and curbs, and granite slab paving. Entry door to No.53 to right at rear of carriageway, early C17 with 2 recessed panels, with lion-head knocker in upper, set in moulded surround. Outshoots timber-framed and plastered, 2 storeys, with old tiled roofs, No.55 having fan-patterned pargeting on first floor. INTERIOR of No.53 has ground floor lowered in front room, but rear room retains original floor level and has an exposed braced tie-beam truss carrying the first floor, with heavy moulded beams, and a red brick fireplace, with a moulded and embattled timber lintel. The former brewhouse and barn in the rear outshoot beyond also contain moulded beams. No.55 has large ground floor Tudor-arched brick fireplace. First floor with C17 oak panelling in left hand front room. Roof over front block halved and pegged rafters, with collars and side purlins immediately above attic ceiling level, reworked C17 from earlier roof. Roof over rear outshoot of No.51 (qv) has a side purlin roof with windbracing. Site occupied by The Raven Inn C16. Subsequently became a house, with a C19 malting constructed behind No.51, converted to residential use in 1980s, and no longer of special interest. (Perman D: Ware UD. List of buildings of special arch or historic interest.: 1993-: 30; Ware 25" to 1 Mile. Surveyed by the Ordnance Survey Department: 1851-; Forrester H: Timber Framed Buildings in Hertford and Ware: Hitchin: 1964-: 37-8; Moodey GE: East Hertfordshire Archaeological Society Newletter: Hertford: 1955-).

Listing NGR: TL3579014306

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

412344

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Forrester, H, Timber Framed Buildings in Hertford and Ware, (1964), 37-8
East Hertfordshire Archaeological Society Newsletter in East Hertfordshire Archaeological Society Newsletter, (1955)

End of official list entry

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