The Merchants House

Details

TL 5563 SWAFFHAM BULBECK COMMERCIAL END (West Side) 14/118 The Merchants House 19.8.1959 GV II

House and commercial premises built mainly in late C17. Extended once in early C18 by a new office or counting-house and again early in C19 when the commercial premises were enlarged. The house is mainly of narrow yellow brick with red brick headers, and thick mortar courses. There have been some repairs and alterations but the general design of yellow brick stretchers and red brick headers remain intact. The rear wall is partly of yellow brick with red brick diaper patterning and the rest is clunch. Plain tiled, steeply pitched roof with wood modillion eaves cornice to front and fine ogee shaped, end parapets on kneelers with original unmoulded cornice brickwork. The gable end to the road has initials WPA in wrought iron. The date 1700 above although said not to be contemporary with the house is probably close to the actual date of construction. Ridge stack with mostly original brickwork, and end stacks. The one to the left hand gable end has red brick quoins and typical late C17 projecting capping. The one to the right hand gable end is rather more restored. Original plan of a single range of four rooms including an office at the road end. Two storeys and attics with a band between the storeys. Five irregularly placed windows at first floor, including three early C19 flush frame hung sashes of twelve panes each but retaining the original late C17 header arches of alternating yellow and red brick. The other two windows are also hung sashes but early C18 and contemporary with the earlier of the additions. At ground floor there are four late C17 window openings with early C19 hung sashes of twelve panes each and two later window openings now blocked. The doorway is off-centre and opens to the low end of the hall. The doorcase is early C19, Doric pilasters with plain frieze, small key pattern and flat hood. Half-glazed door and two lower raised and fielded panels. The gable end to the road has six small blind openings in arched heads. The lower windows have always been blind but later brickwork in the upper windows possibly suggests that they may have been glazed at some time. In early C18 an office or counting-house was added at the rear. Narrow gault brick with red brick quoins and dressings to windows. Steeply pitched, plain tiled roof with end parapets on kneelers. Plan of counting-house on ground floor with one room above. Cellared. Gable end to road has three original hung sashes in segmental arches. The office or counting-house was extended again in early C19 probably during Thomas Bowyers ownership. Gault brick with a roof of two parallel linked ranges. Plain tiled. Plan of one room on ground floor, now a kitchen, and a room above. Two storeys. Shaped lintel to door with a flat hood on shaped brackets and two windows, possibly inserted when room ceased to be used as a counting-house. Inside. Much of the original range was altered in the late C18 or early C19 but there are C17 stop chamfered main beams in one room. The commercial part of the house consists of the early C18 office divided from the early C19 counting-house by a passage. The office retains the original three safes flanking a fireplace of clunch. The shutters are original. The passageway has C19 panelling and partition walls. (The house is associated with the building of a new cut from Swaffham Lode to Commercial End and the development of this part of the village as a port. In the early C19 the house and port were owned by Thomas Bowyer who built many of the houses and cottages in Commercial End for his employees).

R.C.H.M. (North East Cambs.), p109, mon (39). Lambeth, R.C. The Merchants House at Commercial End. Swaffham Bulbeck (East Anglian Magazine, p296-299, 1938). Pevsner, Buildings of England, p379.

Listing NGR: TL5574463313

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

49418

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: Cambridgeshire, (1954), 379
East Anglian Magazine in East Anglian Magazine, (1938), 296-299

Other
An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in Cambridgeshire North East, (1972)

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