Summary
Shop with accommodation over, early to mid-C19, with C20 and C21 alterations. Formerly listed as 15 and 17 Gowthorpe.
History
Selby as a settlement dates to the Anglo-Saxon period, when it was known as Seletun (old Scandinavian for ‘sallow tree settlement’) and was referred by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle of AD 779. A charter of about 1030 called it Seleby and about 1050 it was Selbi. King Henry I was born in Selby in 1068 and, a year later, Benedict, a French monk from Auxerre, obtained permission from King William to establish an Abbey. The Market Place has existed since the early C14. By the C15, Selby had developed thriving trade links along the East Coast and with the Low Countries. Selby Abbey succumbed to dissolution in 1539, and the core of the building became the parish church in 1618.
Selby’s commercial importance grew dramatically following the opening of the Selby Canal in 1778, becoming a notable inland port; however, after the building of Goole Docks in 1826, it suffered a very rapid decline. The town’s fortunes recovered in 1834, with the opening of the Leeds and Selby Railway, and by the early C20, witnessed a growth in several industries served by the railways and river traffic, including: flour milling, malting, oilseed milling and cattle feed production. In 1983, coal production commenced from the Selby Coalfield. Shipbuilding ended ten years later, and coal mining ceased in 2004. Since then, there has been a gradual reduction in the traditional industries, although some remain.
By the C18, Gowthorpe had become the principal shopping street of Selby, leading directly onto the marketplace and Selby Abbey. It was also the main thoroughfare to Leeds. Numbers 17 and 19 Gowthorpe was built during the early to mid-C19, as a pair of semi-detached shops originally numbered 15 and 17 Gowthorpe, each shop having a shop window facing onto Gowthorpe with accommodation above and side entrances: number 19 (17) from Audus Street and number 17 (15) from Adam's Court. The 1849 Ordnance Survey town map shows the shops attached to the northern end of a terrace of workers' houses that fronted onto the east side of Audus Street, with matching houses and shops facing them on the opposite side of the road (21 and 23 Gowthorpe); all of which appear to have been a single speculative development. The 1890 Town Plan shows the rear range of number 19 (17) having been partitioned off as a separate house (number 1 Audus Street), but this was later returned to the original arrangement. The east gable faced onto a narrow passageway that led to Adam’s Court, an area of densely packed workers' houses. The original shop windows in both properties were replaced in the 1930s and, during the 1960s, number 17 (15) was occupied by a sweet and tobacconist shop, and number 19 (17) by a gents' outfitters. During the late C20, the properties were combined into one shop and the shop fronts were replaced by modern large plate-glass windows.
Details
Shop with accommodation over, early to mid-C19, with C20 and C21 alterations. Formerly listed as 15 and 17 Gowthorpe.
MATERIALS: stuccoed and fair-faced brick, semi-hipped cement tile roofs.
PLAN: sub-rectangular plan.
EXTERIOR: the ground-floor of the main (north) elevation has a large modern plate glass shop window to the left and a modern double-fronted shop front to the right with a window occupying a former canted corner entrance position, and a side window to Audus Street. The shop front has projecting sills and plain recessed painted stall risers, there is also a plain deep fascia. The stuccoed first floor has a pair of casement windows beneath painted flat lintels. The east elevation has a coped gable with kneelers and has been partially stuccoed and painted, with the remainder being fair-faced brickwork, with a small casement window to the first and attic floors. The north-west corner is rounded, with a rectangular painted ashlar panel inscribed: AUDUS STREET, with a date that reads: 1840. The west elevation has a blind ground floor with a semi-glazed door to the right; the first floor has a pair of horned sash windows that have exposed sash boxes beneath flat lintels, with projecting painted ashlar sills. The rear (south) elevation is predominantly obscured by the attached number 2 Audus Street; only the right-hand bay is exposed and has a first-floor doorway flanked by a casement window. The doorway leads out onto the roof of a modern flat-roofed extension, built against the ground-floor elevation. The semi-hipped roof has timber eaves fascia boards, supporting plastic guttering that is drained by cast-iron storm boxes and down-pipes.
