4, HIGH STREET

Details

WELLS

ST5445 HIGH STREET
662-1/7/80 (North side)
24/01/94 No.4

GV II

House in row, with shop. Late C15 or C16 structure to rear,
some C17 fabric in front range, mid C20 facade. Rubble with
some timber-frame, but rendered and colourwashed brickwork
facade, slate roofs.
PLAN: a narrow-frontage unit with winder stair rear right, and
a small yard to rear, right, covered; to the rear, offset
left, and interlocking with No.6 (qv) adjoining, a shallow
range parallel with High Street and with gable to the E. All
considerably modified by removal of walls and structure.
EXTERIOR: 3 storeys and basement, 1 bay width; ground floor
C20 shop-front with near-central recessed doorway and deep
fascia. At first floor is a wide 9-light steel casement, and
above is a similar 6-light casement. False pilasters return as
a dentilled parapet, all formed in the rendering; the gable to
the rear range is rendered, and contains an early C19 16-pane
sash. The main range also has an early 2-light casement in the
rear wall.
INTERIOR: the ground-floor front has no early structure
visible; the rear room is smaller, with one chamfered and
stopped beam, built into the wall, left, but suspended on a
stirrup, right, where earlier walling has been removed. There
is an C18 fielded panel door to the basement (not accessible).
A late C19 dog-leg staircase to the right has remains of a
diagonal stick balustrade with turned newel, and at the upper
landing, where structural walling has been removed, is a
slender cast-iron column carrying a beam.
First-floor front has, approximately 800mm from the front
wall, a full-width chamfered beam with lamb's-tongue stops.
The rear room has substantial remains of heavy framing, but to
the right the original structure was removed, and a thick wall
inserted, itself now partly removed. In the party wall are 2
substantial structural posts, one in the rear corner with wide
rough chamfer to a run-out stop carrying a broad beam partly
built in to the party wall at the rear; this wall has a C20
fireplace. The centre beam has large square stops to the left,
and run-out to the right, partly built in to the wall. The
upper flight of stairs has been removed.
Second floor front has no visible early features, and a steep
hipped roof of the C20. The rear room, entered through a
wide-plank ledged door, has a 2-bay roof with 2 trusses-the
third, to the right, removed with the rebuilding of this gable
wall.
The roof has cambered collars, 2 purlins with run-out stops,
and broad chamfered wind-braces in the middle range; the outer
brace to the E is missing.
This property has considerable historic fabric of interest,
which appears to interlock with, and may have been built as
part of No.6; the shallow front range is oddly related on
plan.
(Hale B: Vernacular Architecture Group Report: 1988-).




Listing NGR: ST5495845756

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

483352

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Hale, B, Vernacular Architecture Group Report in Vernacular Architecture Group Report, (1988)

End of official list entry

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