1 and 3 High Street

Summary

House of around 1800 with later shopfront.

History

The historic core of Kettering centres around St Peter and St Paul church, Market Place to its north-west, and the immediate network of streets around it. Originally a Saxon village and later a market town, Kettering was for much of its history a relatively small linear settlement comprising what are now Gold Street, the High Street, Market Street, and Market Place. This core layout of medieval streets persists today, though the majority of the surviving buildings date from the C19 and C20. Kettering was at the convergence of several important routes and benefited from this and from the wool industry, but it was the arrival in 1857 of the Midland Railway which enabled larger industries, particularly the boot and shoe making industry, to expand the town significantly beyond its historic core. The wider town is still characterised by numerous former factories and associated terraced housing.

Numbers 1 and 3 forms a terrace with the adjacent 5 and 7 High Street (NHLE entry 1372600). The site of 1-7 High Street has been developed since at least the C16, and buildings probably existed on this site from the early days of the Saxon settlement. Maps from the 1720s show this area of the High Street densely occupied, with some buildings extending to the rear on long narrow plots. Numbers 1-7 were originally two separate buildings, each fronting long narrow plots likely to be medieval burgage plots. Both buildings were later subdivided into two at ground level, leading to the current numbering system. Numbers 1 and 3 is the southern of the two buildings.

Though the exact build date is unknown, 1 and 3 has characteristics of C18 to early-C19 dwellings, with one or two chambers to the front and one to the rear, with a small winder stair (now lost at ground floor level). The first 25” OS map of Kettering (surveyed in 1884) shows 1 and 3 occupying a similar footprint to today, though the outbuildings to the rear were modified in the C20.

Previously one property, by 1924 the ground floors of 1-3 had been divided into numbers 1 and 3. The rear wall of 1 and 3 was replaced in the mid-C20 in red brick, with metal windows topped with flat soldier arches. In 1981 the ground floor of 3 High Street was amalgamated with 5 and 7 when it was purchased by AA Thornton Jewellers. At some point following this, an opening was made at first floor between 1 and 3, and 5 and 7, and the upper floors of 1 and 3 were occupied by AA Thornton as a maisonette accessed via the shop. The shopfront of 3-7 was replaced in the 1980s by a modern shopfront with brick piers. In 1994, 1 High Street was also amalgamated with 3-7 when it was also purchased by AA Thornton. The entire shopfront of 1-7 was replaced in timber and the entire façade renovated and restored in 2012.

Details

MATERIALS: the front façade of the building is stuccoed. The 2012 shopfront and signboard are of timber.

PLAN: the building is roughly square on plan and faces onto High Street to its east.

EXTERIOR: the terrace is of three storeys under a pitched slate roof.
The principal eastern elevation at first and second floor level has a symmetrical arrangement of four sash windows with C20 glazing, across two bays. The windows have lugged architraves. The timber shopfront has reeded pilasters in imitation of a historic shopfront. The year 1909 marked on the shopfront refers to the date that AA Thornton was founded, at separate premises on Market Street.

The rear elevation of 1 and 3 is a C20 redbrick structure with metal framed windows with soldier courses above. The roof above the rear elevation has been altered to a flat-topped dormer. At ground floor is a red brick extension with flat roof and no windows, which appears C20 in date. A long and narrow single-storey workshop wing with monopitch roof extends along the southern edge of the plot abutting the rubblestone ironstone wall of the Royal Hotel. This appears to be C19 in date and is constructed of red brick with wooden windows, with many replacement windows and patched areas.

Listing NGR: SP8663678530

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

230083

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Other
Map of Kettering c. 1720, accessed 16 February 2021 at [http://britishlibrary.georeferencer.com/maps/a6b9887c-b961-47b1-8460-899d17408fc3/]
OS 25” Northamptonshire XXV.14 (Broughton; Kettering) (surveyed 1884, published 1887) accessed January 25 2021 at [https://maps.nls.uk/view/114477803]
OS 25” Northamptonshire XXV.14 (Broughton; Kettering) (revised 1924, published 1926) accessed 25 January 2021 at [https://maps.nls.uk/view/114477809]
Northampton Historic Environment records 7198/0/53, accessed 16 February 16 2021 at [https://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?resourceID=1044&uid=MNN106853]
Design and Access Statement for restoration works to Nos. 1-7 High Street, ref KET/2010/0544 [https://www.kettering.gov.uk/planx_downloads/0544.2010.KET.DAS_part_1.pdf]
"Parishes: Kettering," in A History of the County of Northampton: Volume 3, ed. William Page (London: Victoria County History, 1930), 218-226. British History Online, accessed January 25 2021, http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/northants/vol3/pp218-226.

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All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.

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