Summary
A house built in 1742 or earlier and used as accommodation and retail premises since at least the early 1800s.
Reasons for Designation
83 and 83a Market Place, Swaffham, a house built in 1742 or earlier and used as accommodation and retail premises since at least the early 1800s is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Historic interest:
* for its early origins, the building is documented to have existed since 1742.
Architectural interest:
* for its well-detailed and symmetrical brick frontage;
* for its relatively early shopfronts, one side added in the late C19 and the other in the early C20.
Group value:
* for the functional group value it shares with other Georgian buildings close by, all of which were designed to display the social status of the owners and contribute to Swaffham’s fashionable Market Place.
History
Swaffham’s significance in the medieval period stemmed from its position on the crossroads of the main routes from London, Norwich and King’s Lynn. The first written record of a market in the town, which was established on a triangular-shaped area formed by the convergence of the aforementioned roads, was in 1215 when King John issued a royal writ to the Sherriff of Norfolk to abolish it should it ‘damage the market in Dunham’. It was never abolished and expanded rapidly. The Market Place was probably open to the church on its east side, but later C17 development closed this off, while the development of The Shambles in the middle in the late C18/early-C19, further reduced the size of the open space. From the mid-C18, for a period of just over a hundred years, Swaffham became one of the most populous parishes in Norfolk and one of the most fashionable centres in the county, attracting many leading West Norfolk Families. A racecourse had been established by 1628, the Assembly Rooms were constructed in 1776-1778, subsequently extended and modernised in 1817, and George Walpole, the Third Earl of Orford (1730-1791), founded a coursing club in 1786. During this period of prosperity, much rebuilding took place around the Market Place and the overall character of the town is primarily of mid-late Georgian in date, although there is evidence for C16-C17 work behind many façades. Further rebuilding also took place after ‘The Great Fire of Swaffham’, which probably started in the vicinity of the Blue Boar Inn (now the White Hart) on the afternoon of 14 November 1775, when it was set ablaze by a spark from a nearby blacksmith’s workshop. Fire soon engulfed the densely packed houses and workshops behind the inn and along London Road, with 22 buildings being completely destroyed and a further two badly damaged. The town continued to expand in the C19 when its population increased from 2,200 in 1800 to 3,350 in 1845. It also became an important local administrative centre during this period and acquired several notable buildings, including a National School (1838), Shire Hall (1839) and Corn Hall (1858).
83 Market Place was built as a house in the late C18. In the Tithe Award of 1840, it is described as a house and shop, owned and occupied by William Smith. On the accompanying map, the building faces west onto Market Place and has a long rectangular plan, oriented east-west, with a series of adjoining outbuildings to the rear. The historic Ordnance Survey (OS) maps of 1884, 1905 and 1928 show that some changes had taken place to the rear ranges but, based on the map evidence, it appears that what is now number 83a is formed from the outbuildings. The building was converted into offices and a flat in the C20.
Details
House built in the late C18, converted into offices and a flat in the C20.
MATERIALS: red brick laid in Flemish bond with brick dressings and a roof covering of black-glazed pantiles.
PLAN: the building faces west onto Market Place and has a rectangular plan with a rear wing and attached outbuilding (number 83a).
EXTERIOR: the building is of two storeys and an attic under a pitched roof. This is pierced by two late C20 dormers fitted with two-light casements, and a central ridge stack. The three-bay façade has a triple brick platband just below the eaves, and shallow, plain brick pilasters at either end. In the central bay are double-leaf C20 doors with lower wooden panels and upper glazed sections, set within a late C18 timber doorcase of pilasters rising to a plain entablature. This is flanked by late C20 canted display windows with plate glass. The first floor is lit by two recessed six-over-six pane unhorned sashes under gauged skewback arches. The central window is blind. The north return wall was rebuilt in red brick in the late C20.
INTERIOR: this was opened out in the late C20 and converted into offices.
