Summary
Former house, built between around 1780 to 1800, adapted for use as a school in 1896.
Reasons for Designation
18 Market Place, built as a private townhouse between around 1780 to 1800 and adapted for use as a school in 1896, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* as a prominent and architecturally distinguished late-C18 townhouse with a pleasingly proportioned composition and attractive classical detailing;
* for the high proportion of survival of its distinctive late-C18 plan form and classical interior features, including an elegant stair, cornicing, fireplaces, and moulded window and door surrounds.
Historic interest:
* located within a significant mid- to late-Georgian townscape, 18 Market Place makes a notable contribution to the rich architectural character and historic evolution of Market Place and Swaffham.
Group value:
* it is surrounded by many designated assets with which it has strong group value, including but not limited to Oakleigh House to the north (Grade II*), 20 Market Place to the south (Grade II), and pairs of gate piers to Market Place and Whitsands Road (each listed at Grade II).
History
Swaffham’s significance in the Middle Ages stemmed from its position as a crossroads on main east-west and north-south routes, not for its position on a river. The market and two fairs were established by the mid-C13 on the triangular Market Place, bounded on the north side by the present Lynn Street. The marketplace was likely originally open to the church on the eastern side, but C17 development closed this off. The Shambles developed in the centre of the marketplace in the early post-medieval period. The late C18 was a period of some social importance for the town when it became at least locally fashionable; there had been a racecourse at Swaffham since the C17 and the Earl of Orford founded the Coursing Club in 1786. The Assembly Rooms were constructed between 1776 and 1778, and the south front was added in 1817. The overall impression of the town centre is mid- to late Georgian, but there is evidence of C16 and C17 work behind many frontages.
In 1724 Nicholas Hamond, Lord of the Manor of Swaffham, bequeathed £1000 in his will for the erection of a schoolhouse and instruction of 20 boys in reading, writing and arithmetic. Hamond’s Grammar School was erected in 1736 on the Campinglands, and a National School and teachers’ house were added in 1838. The school was transferred to 18 Market Place, a late-C18 house, in 1896. The attached 20 Market Place was built in the mid-C18 incorporating the remains of a mid- to late C17 crosswing to the rear; it was the premises of the Norwich and Swaffham (Days) Bank in the early C19, and was later adapted for use as the school headmaster’s house. A detached prefabricated gymnasium was constructed to the rear of 18 Market Place around 1900, and later became a woodwork room. A single-storey classroom block was constructed to the rear of 20 Market Place in 1900, and a two-storey classroom block was added to the south-west end in 1912; a kitchen and WC block was added to the south-west in the early to mid-C20. A new gymnasium was constructed at the west boundary of the site in 1931, with an art room and physics laboratory on its upper floor. 18 Market Place was extended to the rear in 1954 with the addition of a two-storey library on the site of an earlier range. The new library was probably designed by the office of C H Thurston, who was County Architect at that time. Hamond’s Grammar School merged with the Secondary Modern School on Brandon Road in 1977, and the buildings on Market Place were utilised as a Sixth Form Centre until 2009.
Details
Former house, built between around 1780 to 1800, adapted for use as a school in 1896.
MATERIALS: The roof has a slate covering and the walls are constructed of red brick.
PLAN: The building is roughly rectangular on plan, facing north-east to Market Place.
EXTERIOR: The front elevation is two storeys in height and three bays in width. The pitched roof has a slate covering, internal red-brick chimneystacks to its north and south gables and projecting bracketed eaves over the front elevation. The red brick walls are laid in Flemish bond, with a painted plat band over the ground floor. A relocated wall plaque at first floor level records the foundation of a school in 1736 by Nicholas Hamond. The south bay of the ground floor has a stuccoed doorcase with minor incised decoration and a plain entablature, containing a margined overlight and six-panelled door. The ground and first floor have two and three bays of windows respectively, with gauged skewback arches and six-over-six sashes without horns; the central window of the first floor has horns. A two-storey library was added to the rear in 1954, with three large bays of windows to the south-west.
INTERIOR: The entrance hall has a sandstone floor and plain moulded cornice; a curved stair at the west end has stick balusters and a wreathed handrail. North of the entrance hall, the drawing room has a moulded cornice, lugged surrounds to the doors and windows, fitted cupboards, and a classical timber fire surround with a cast-iron and glazed tile insert. The rear corridor has hexagonal pamments, and a door with an overlight to the rear lobby. The rear room, partially rebuilt to form a library in 1954, retains an early-C19 lugged door surround, dado rail and skirting. The north room of the first floor, overlooking Market Place, retains an early-C19 moulded cornice, ceiling rose, window shutters, architraves, and painted stone fire surround. The south room retains a cornice, splayed window shutters, architraves, and timber fire surround with ovals in a frieze linked by swags. The rear room was constructed in 1954.
