Summary
Shop with dwelling above, constructed during the late-C16 or C17, extended to the rear (south) during the C17 and altered during the C19, when the front range was raised and a new shop front installed.
History
The town of Leominster traces its origins to the establishment of a religious house there during the C7 or earlier. The Saxon settlement endured repeated Viking raids and is recorded as a sizeable town in the Domesday Book (1086), with 27 households. In the early-C12, King Henry I established a Benedictine Priory in the town and granted a foundation charter for the town’s market. The town thrived throughout the later medieval period, despite periodic unrest due to its location in the border region. Leominster wool was prized across Europe and bestowed considerable wealth upon the town. The town centre retains many medieval and early-modern buildings; secular buildings are timber framed while surviving Priory buildings are constructed of local sandstone. The town centre retains an essentially medieval street pattern, with long, narrow burgage plots fronting the north-south spine road of Broad Street-High Street-South Street, and Corn Square (the historic market place) lying to the east of the High Street. The remains of the Priory, dissolved in 1539, lie to the north-east of the town centre. The town remained a prominent local centre into the C18 and C19. During this period, many timber-framed buildings were replaced (or refronted) by brick buildings with Classical elevations. Many houses in the town centre were partially converted to commercial use and equipped with shopfronts during the later-C19 and C20.
6 Corn Street is a timber-framed building constructed during the late-C16 or early-C17. A timber-framed rear range was added probably during the C17. It is believed that the second floor and ground-floor shopfront were added during the mid to late-C19, at which time the principal, north elevation was also rendered. The building was altered again in the early-C20, with the insertion of a timber casement window into an earlier, C19 window frame on the first floor. Further interventions during the C19 or C20 included the insertion of an iron strap and tie bar to the principal, north elevation. The building is currently (2022) in use as a shop with a dwelling above.
Details
Shop with dwelling above, constructed during the late-C16 or C17, extended to the rear (south) during the C17 and altered during the C19, when the front range was raised and a new shop front installed.
MATERIALS: the building is timber-framed, with a rendered principal (north) elevation and a brick chimney stack. The roof covering is slate.
PLAN: the building is arranged as two ranges on a rectangular plan running south from Corn Street. The front range onto Corn Street has a one-room plan, while the rear wing is two bays deep.
EXTERIOR: the principal, north range is three storeys in height across one bay onto Corn Street under a pitched roof. On the ground floor is a C19, timber shopfront with a box fascia and cornice, a console bracket to the east, plate glass shop window framed by plain pilasters, and an angled doorway containing a glazed, C20 door to the west. On the first floor is a C20, timber casement window within a possibly earlier, moulded timber frame. To the west of the window is the head of an iron tie. On the second floor is a C19, horizontal-sliding sash window with six-by-six glazing. To the west of the window is an iron strap running onto the west elevation. Immediately above the window is a timber fascia board.
There is a wing to the rear with timber framing exposed on the second floor of west side.
INTERIOR: it is understood that on the first floor of the front range is an unchamfered axial beam, exposed corner post and corner fireplace, while on the second floor there is a fielded, two-panel door, and in the attic above there is a large purlin. It is understood that the rear range contains jowled posts, slightly cambered tie-beam trusses with queen and V-struts morticed to the principal rafters, trenched purlins and a diagonal trenched ridgepiece, along with exposed wall-framing.
