Summary
Timber-framed house constructed during the late-C16 or early-C17, altered during the C18. A shopfront was inserted in the late-C19 or early-C20, along with alterations to windows and interiors.
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.
39 High Street is a timber-framed building constructed during the late-C16 or early-C17. The west (High Street) façade was rendered during the C18 or C19 and a timber shopfront was installed in the late-C19 or early-C20. The rear elevation was rebuilt in brick during the C18 and a gable dormer added. The first and second-floor windows of the High Street façade were replaced during the mid-C20. A carved timber bargeboard, possibly contemporary with the original building, was also removed and replaced with a plain bargeboard during the mid-C20. Today (2022) the building is in use as a shop with dwellings above.
Details
Timber-framed house constructed during the late-C16 or early-C17, altered during the C18. A shopfront was inserted in the late-C19 or early-C20, along with alterations to windows and interiors.
MATERIALS: the building’s west (High Street) elevation is rendered and its east (Butchers Row) elevation is of painted brickwork. The original timber frame structure is understood to survive behind the facades. The shopfront is of timber and glass, and the roof covering is plain tile.
PLAN: the building occupies a rectangular plot with a principal elevation to the west on the High Street and a rear elevation to the east on Butchers Row.
EXTERIOR: the building is of three storeys plus basement across a single bay to its east and west elevations, under a gable roof. There is a late-C19 or early-C20 shopfront to the High Street frontage, which comprises a large, plate glass shop window over a moulded timber stallriser, framed by beaded pilasters, with a half-canted, recessed entrance to the south containing a C20 door and a plain overlight. The window frame carries brackets for fitting external shutters. Over the shop window and entrance is a moulded fascia board with console brackets carrying a moulded, flat hood. The first and second floors each have a single, centrally-placed, timber casement of the mid to late-C20. Above the second-floor window, the gable is jettied with plain boxing-in of the bressumer and eaves and plain, modern bargeboards.
INTERIOR: the interior is understood to contain exposed chamfered and moulded ceiling beams.
