85 Market Place

Summary

A house and premises for a clock and watch-making business built in the late C18 and later converted into a shop with accommodation above, around 1900.

Reasons for Designation

85 Market Place, a house and premises for a clock and watch-making business built in the late C18 and converted to a shop around 1900, is listed for the following principal reasons:

Historic interest:

* for its early date, built in the C18, and is known to have been a clock and watchmakers for many years.

Architectural interest:

* for its Georgian frontage;
* for the curved, plate-glass shop front dating from around 1900.

Group value:

* for the historic functional group value it shares with other Georgian buildings close by, all of which were designed to attract customers of high status and contribute to Swaffham’s fashionable Market Place especially number 83 and 83a Market Place (Grade II-listed, National Heritage List for England (NHLE) entry 1269564) and the Red Lion, number 87 Market Place (Grade II-listed, NHLE entry 1269566).

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).

85 Market Place was built as a house in the late C18. It is shown on the historic Ordnance Survey maps of 1884, 1905 and 1928 facing west onto the Market Place with a long, linear plan and adjoining outbuildings to the rear. Around 1900 it was converted into a shop with accommodation above.

Details

A house built in the late C18 and later converted into a shop with accommodation above, around 1900.

MATERIALS: pebble-dashed and whitewashed brick with a roof covering of black-glazed pantiles.

PLAN: long rectangular plan facing west onto the Market Place with adjoining outbuildings to the rear.

EXTERIOR: the building is of two storeys and an attic under a steeply pitched roof behind a parapet. The roof has one flat-topped dormer window fitted with a two-over-two pane horned sash, and an internal red brick chimney stack rising from the right gable end. The ground floor is dominated by a curved plate-glass shopfront dating to around 1900. This has a deeply projecting canopy box and a tiled stallriser clad in black brick-sized tiles. The first floor is lit by two recessed two-over-two pane horned sash windows.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

460630

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, Wilson, B, The Buildings of England: Norfolk 2: North-West and South, (2002)
Swaffham History Group, , The Book of Swaffham: The Story of a Norfolk Market Town, (2021)

Other
Unpublished research – Swaffham Cultural Consortium and Swaffham History Group.

End of official list entry

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