Summary
A timber-framed market cross dating from the very early C17, refurbished in 1897.
Reasons for Designation
The Market Cross at North Walsham, a building of exceptional architectural and historic interest, is listed at Grade I for the following principal reasons:
Historic Interest:
* as an excellent surviving example of a market house, the earliest form of commercial building;
* for its early fabric dating from the very early C17, replacing an earlier structure that was destroyed by the great fire of 1600;
* for its continuous use as the focal point of the market in North Walsham for well over four centuries.
Architectural Interest:
* for its substantial timber frame with eight crown posts;
* for the decorative nature of the design with its octagonal shape and its ogee-shaped roofs;
* for the clock face and chiming mechanism added in 1899.
Group Value:
* for the exceptional functional group value it shares with at least 18 other listed commercial buildings facing North Walsham’s Market Place including even numbers 28 to 42 Market Street to the north (eleven separate entries on the NHLE), odd numbers 23 to 27a Market Street to the west (three entries on the NHLE) and even numbers 16 to 22 Market Street to the south (four entries on the NHLE).
History
The settlement of (North) Walsham was owned by the Abbey of St Benet at Holme by the early C11 and was recorded in the Domesday survey (1086). The town had an established market by 1275, helped by the local wool trade, especially following the arrival of Flemish weavers in the C14. Lightweight ‘Walsham’ cloth reflects the town’s significant position in the wool and weaving industry. The large size of the medieval parish church of St Nicholas expresses some of the prosperity derived from the trade.
Much of the town’s medieval fabric was destroyed by fire in the summer of 1600, including 118 houses, 70 shops and warehouses, and even more barns, stables, malthouses and outhouses. The town changed in the reconstruction, with new building styles and materials used, but the layout of the marketplace and the narrow width of plots remained. Despite the declining wool trade, the town remained a significant market centre as an agricultural trading point and, from the early C19, a place of manufacturing. The North Walsham and Dilham Canal was opened in 1826, and by the end of the C19 the town had two railway stations.
Market crosses were the earliest commercial buildings, dating from medieval times, placed to demonstrate that the Church had given authority for a market to be held. In time many crosses became bigger structures sometimes called market houses, though many continued to be known as a “market cross”. Open at ground floor level, they provided permanent, covered places for selling and exchange and developed as a natural progression from the temporary market stall. They were typically placed prominently to designate the location of a town’s marketplace. Upper-floor rooms were used for a variety of purposes including municipal government.
The original Market Cross in North Walsham is reported to have been built by Bishop Thirlby in 1549. It was rebuilt by Bishop Redman following the devastating fire of 1600. A plaque affixed to the plinth of the market cross states that in 1897 it was thoroughly restored as a permanent memorial of Queen Victoria’s diamond jubilee. There is no record of the exact nature of the restoration. In 1899 funds from the North Walsham Steeplechase were used to buy a new chiming clock, with a bell and mechanism by Gillett and Johnston of Croydon. In 1914 the building was conveyed to the town by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. In 1930 it was added to the schedule of monuments and in 1950 it was added to the Statutory List at Grade I. The lead was added to the roof covering in 1984.
Details
A market cross, dating from the early C17. The building has an octagonal plan.
MATERIALS: Timber-framed, with lead roofs, the building stands on a brick plinth.
EXTERIOR: The building has three storeys of diminishing size, with ogee shaped, lead-covered roofs. The lower storey consists of an open, octagonal timber-framed structure, with timbers of very heavy scantling. There are eight crown posts, each supporting a horizontal beam radiating from the centre and a horizontal beam reaching the next crown post. Each post is set in a sole plate joined with iron ties to form an octagon, on a red brick plinth laid in English bond.
The first floor is a smaller octagonal room with eight-light windows with diamond leaded lights to alternate faces, and timber panels to the faces in between.
The second floor contains two-light windows with diamond leaded lights on alternate faces, surmounted by an ogee roof topped with a brass weathervane. There is a clock on the south-east face.
INTERIOR: The interior can only be accessed by ladder, via a trap door in the centre of the floor.
The first floor contains exposed timber-framing with eight radiating horizontal beams of heavy scantling supporting the roof of the first floor. There are smaller, apparently later, slender, angled posts supporting each of the radiating timbers. At the time of survey (2023) there was an Acrow Prop supporting the radiating timbers at the centre. There is a built-in cupboard, and the mechanism of the clock is exposed.
The second floor is accessed by ladder. It contains a bell, marked “Gillett and Johnston bell founders, Croydon” with its striking mechanism linked to the clock.
