39 and 41 Market Place

Summary

Former townhouse, built around 1730-1740 on the site of an early-C16 house, remodelled in the C19 with two shops created on the ground floor and living accommodation above. New shopfronts were installed to number 39 in the mid-C20 and number 41 in the late C20.

Reasons for Designation

39 and 41 Market Place, Swaffham, are listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* as a former C18 townhouse which, with its incorporation of late medieval fabric and later conversion to commercial use, contributes to the character of an architecturally varied historic streetscape;
* for the high-quality and well-executed neoclassical shopfront to number 39, which achieves as strong commercial presence on Market Place.

Historic interest:

* for the contribution it makes to the evolution of the historic Market Place and development of the town.

Group value:

* it has historic and functional group value with many other listed buildings ranged around 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- to 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).

39 and 41 Market Place were originally built between 1730 to 1740 as a large townhouse, probably on the site of an early-C16 house. By the mid-C19 the building had been subdivided into two properties, with shops on the ground floor and living accommodation above; it is known that number 39 was a grocery and drapery shop in 1841, whist number 41 was a tailors and dressmakers in 1861. Number 39 was remodelled as a branch of Lloyd’s Bank in the 1930s, at which time the neoclassical shopfront was probably installed, and in 1951 it became a branch of the National Provincial Bank. After the bank closed in 1976, the ground-floor shop became a bakery and has remained so ever since. Its neighbour, number 41, housed a dairy from the 1930s until the late 1960s. In the 1970s it was occupied by a household electrical goods showroom. After accommodating several different retailers during the later C20 and early C21, it is currently (2024) used as a pet store.

Details

Former townhouse, built around 1730-1740 on the site of an early-C16 house, remodelled in the C19 with two shops created on the ground floor and living accommodation above. New shopfronts were installed to number 39 in the mid-C20 and number 41 in the late C20.

MATERIALS: of red brick in Flemish bond with brick stacks and roof of black-glazed pantiles.

EXTERIOR: the principal elevation to Market Place is of two storeys with a dormer attic in seven bays, with number 39 comprising four bay and number 41 three bays. On the ground floor, number 39 is spanned by a neoclassical shopfront in which the bays are defined by four engaged Roman Doric columns supporting a plain entablature with a modillioned cornice. From left to right, the first bay has a six-panelled passageway door with a square-paned fanlight, the second bay has a three-panelled double-leaf door and third and fourth bays have a multi-pane display window above a panelled stallriser. The three right-hand bays (number 41) have been merged and contain a late-C20 shopfront with a plate-glass display window and door. On the first floor there are seven six-over-six unhorned sashes with stone sills and gauged skewback brick arches. Above is a timber eaves cornice with modillions. The gabled roof has two flat-topped dormers separated by a gabled dormer; the two left-hand dormers having three-over-three unhorned sashes while the other is blind and painted in imitation. The off-centre right ridge stack and internal gable-end stack to the west have both been rebuilt.

INTERIOR: the passageway to left-hand side has roll and hollow-moulded joists and wall plates, probably dating to around 1500. The ground floor was opened out and subdivided in the C20 as two retail units, but the cornices remain. On the first floor, the centre room has moulded cornices, two blocked doorways into the adjoining property (number 41), and large-framed panelling on the north wall, partly boarded over. To the attic storey there is a C18 closed-string staircase with turned balusters and moulded handrail.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

460623

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, Wilson, B, The Buildings of England: Norfolk 2: North-West and South, (2002), pp679-680, p682.
Swaffham History Group, , The Book of Swaffham: The Story of a Norfolk Market Town, (2021)

End of official list entry

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