5 and 7 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 early 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 5 and 7 forms a terrace with the adjacent 1 and 3 High Street (NHLE entry 1372599). 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; 5 and 7 is the northern of the two buildings.

Though the exact build date is unknown, 5 and 7 has characteristics of C18 and early-C19 dwellings of this scale, with two chambers to the front and two to the rear, with a small winder stair. The first 25” OS map of Kettering (surveyed in 1884) shows the building occupying a similar footprint to today, though the outbuildings to the rear were modified in the C20.

The ground floor of 5-7 was divided into two (5 and 7) in the mid-C20 but was one premises again when first occupied by AA Thornton Jewellers in 1969. AA Thornton currently use the upper two floors of 5 and 7 as office and storage space. In 1981 the ground floor of 3 High Street was amalgamated with 5 and 7 when it was purchased by AA Thornton. The shopfront of 3-7 was replaced in the 1980s by a modern shopfront with brick piers. In 1994, number 1 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

MATERIAL: brick, with the front façade of the building 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 building is of three storeys under a pitched slate roof. The principal eastern elevation at first and second floor level is arranged in two bays. At first floor level, the northern window is a timber oriel window with a two-over-two sash, while the southern window is a two-over-two sash. Between these two windows is a three-faced clock, which projects from the façade on a metal bracket. The second-floor windows are both two-over-two sashes. This façade has rendered quoins, probably of stucco. The shopfront has timber 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 is a dressed limestone wall, with scars of previous openings which have now been filled. To the south is a small redbrick monopitch extension of C19 date.

INTERIOR: it is understood that some historic features survive in the interiors of the upper rooms, including reed and plaster ceilings and a plank door likely to date to the early C19.

Listing NGR: SP8663678530

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

230084

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 7198/0/54, accessed 16 February 16 2021 at https://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=MNN106854&resourceID=1044

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