Summary
Plowright Place, a former ironworks and foundry with showrooms and stores, built in 1870.
Reasons for Designation
22-23 Market Place and 1-8 Plowright Place, a former ironworks and foundry with showrooms and stores, built in 1870, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* its smart brick façade designed to entice potential customers and the flint rubble workshops to the rear both retain evidence of the building’s former usage in the form of the tall display windows and the four carriage arches in the rear range;
* it retains much of its external detailing, notably the shaped gable and decorative fanlight, which enhances the varied architectural character of the Market Place.
Historic interest:
* it was the purpose-built commercial premises for the Plowright family, an old Swaffham family who, for at least two centuries, ran the prominent ironmongers and agricultural engineering works in the town;
* it contributes to the coherent commercial townscape that forms one of the most important historic public spaces in Swaffham, one that continues to reflect the historical development of the town.
Group value:
* it has a strong historic and functional group value with, many other listed buildings on the Market Place, particularly with the adjoining Grade II listed 34 Market Place which was the home and former commercial premises of the Plowright family in the C18 and C19.
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 1776-8, subsequently extended and modernised in 1817, and George Walpole, the Third Earl of Orford (1730-91), 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).
Plowright Place is named after the Plowright family’s agricultural engineering business which became one of the largest and best-known in East Anglia. It was also the largest employer in Swaffham for many years. The Plowrights were an old Swaffham family who can be traced back to 1457, and who kept business records from 1775 until 1939. At some point in the C18, they acquired 34 Market Place (separately listed at Grade II) which was their family home and, at street level, their ironmongery shop. Next door (to the south) were Bedingfield Cottages which were sold to Henry Plowright who demolished them and developed his extensive engineering works on the site in 1870. The new premises were constructed by a local builder Matthias Goggs who was responsible for Dereham Corn Hall and Swaffham Corn Exchange, as well as rebuilding Sandringham.
The new Market Street premises had an imposing entrance flanked by fifteen-feet-high showroom windows behind which large agricultural machines were displayed. The room on the left (south) was the main agricultural showroom and store, and the room on the right (north) was the hardware shop and store. This contained a spiral staircase leading to offices on the upper floor but it has since been removed. In the central doorway there were large cast-iron and wood doors which slid open on rails. These led to a weighbridge and then through another set of sliding doors which gave access to the main industrial yard. Neither the doors nor weighbridge are extant. Most of the workshops were on the left (south) side of the yard, shown on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1884 as a long rear wing reaching to Whitsands Road.
The first section of the rear range was the Carpenters’ and Wheelwrights’ Shop, followed by the Blacksmith Shop containing five large forges. Between each forge was a pipe-vent, set at a height of twelve feet and protruding into the alleyway. This was mirrored by five similar vents on the courtyard wall opposite, creating a strong through-draught. In the south-west corner was a tall brick chimney to which all the flues were connected. In the centre of the room was a structure on which a mechanical hammer operated, driven by the power derived from an overhead drive-shaft which also drove a large fan encased in a box-like structure in the corner. In the courtyard outside were two bending machines. Following that was the Fitting Shop or Machine Room which contained large lathes, a milling machine and a grinding machine with attached fly-wheel, all driven by pulleys from the central drive-shaft. The next room was the Engine Room which contained a static engine that drove a long drive-shaft through all three of the workshops. The final section on the south side was the foundry which was most likely a later extension as it is in red brick, as opposed to flint. This contained a furnace, an oven and metal track-rails on each side wall. It had a chimney which was found to be unsafe and demolished in the 1950s.
In 1940 the Plowright premises were sold to Eric Wigg whose family had a similar business near Beccles. They kept the Plowright name until the late 1970s when the company closed. In 1982 the site was converted into a shopping arcade with a mix of small businesses, and around 2014 part of the upper floor was converted into flats. At some point the former foundry was rebuilt using salvaged red brick and used as a doctor’s surgery, and it is now offices (2024). It is not included in the listing.
Details
Former ironworks and foundry with showrooms and stores, built in 1870 by the local builder Matthias Goggs, converted into a shopping arcade in 1982, with first-floor flats created around 2014.
MATERIALS: the frontage is of yellow brick laid in Flemish bond with yellow brick dressings under a slate-clad roof to the front and pantiles to the rear. The rear range is of uncoursed flint, some unfractured, with red brick fragments in places, and red brick dressings. The roof over the western half is clad in pantiles. (The remaining roof covering is not visible from street level).
PLAN: the main range faces east onto the Market Place and contains a central carriageway leading to the long, rear, south range.
The western-most part of the rear range (9-10 Plowright Place), constructed of red brick, is not included in the listing.
EXTERIOR: the main frontage has two-storeys under a pitched roof with a dentilled eaves cornice and a parapet on the left supported by a brick kneeler. The façade has five window bays and is nearly symmetrical. The central carriageway is defined by pilasters rising to a shaped gable and enclosing an arched two-light casement at first-floor level, with a large decorative fanlight with batwing glazing bars. The metal gates date to the late C20. The carriageway is flanked by pairs of tall three-light windows set in raised surrounds with a keystone, and one-over-one pane sash windows above, in similar surrounds. A stone platband runs across these bays in between the windows. The outer bays have shallow recesses with a moulded stone cornice and stone platband under first-floor sill level. The narrower left bay contains a semicircular arched pedestrian doorway with a brick keystone, leading to the rear. The wider right-hand bay has a C20 shop window display and door. The central carriageway retains two cast-iron columns with classical-style capitals, and is lined with late C20 shop windows. Along the south side of the rear courtyard is a long two-storey range of flint with brick quoins, under a pitched roof with a simple brick eaves cornice. The workshops were housed in this range which retains four former carriage entrances under wide brick arches composed of three rows of headers. These have been infilled with doors and shop windows. Along the ground floor there are eleven wooden windows, mostly with fixed lights, under red brick arches; and the first floor is pierced by twelve wooden casements, mostly in late C20 brick surrounds. The doors and fenestration date to the 1982 conversion.
INTERIOR: this does not retain any historic features or fixtures relating to its former use, having been converted into shop units and flats in the late C20 and early C21 respectively.
