Sapphire Moon

Details

THAME

1707/0/10010 HIGH STREET 18-MAY-07 86 Sapphire Moon

GV II House with ground-floor shop, probably C17 with later alterations, and late C20 modifications.

MATERIALS: Timber-framed, refronted in brick; plain-tile roof. Modern tile-hung gable wall to right.

PLAN: Small, two-bay, two-storey plus attic, building fronting on to the High Street pavement with later extensions to the rear.

EXTERIOR: Timber-framed building, probably C17, clad with pale pink bricks with darker red bricks to quoins and to window and door edges in later C18 or early C19 when the building line was pushed outward onto the pavement by about 0.5m. The front façade has a large, six-over-three paned shop window (seemingly a C20 replacement) with the front door to its left and to the first floor two 16-paned casements extending upward to the roof line. The gabled attic's conversion for residential use (at unknown date) is indicated by long dormer windows to front (replaced c2000) and rear. To the rear two smaller multi-paned casements are visible at first-floor level; the original ground-floor arrangement is obscured by a single-storey brick extension with catslide roof and a further flat-roofed C20 one.

INTERIOR: To the ground floor two internal transverse beams divide the C17 building into three sections with exposed joists between them. To the front the original corner posts are visible with decorative jowls. First inner transverse beam with chamfers and double-notched stops; supporting wall posts have decorative jowls. Second transverse beam is chamfered with run out stop. Modern staircase to first floor at rear reveals large timber-framed panels with diagonal bracing. Two rooms to first-floor front with near-identical chamfered transverse beam supported on wall posts with decorative jowls. Exposed ceiling joists. In rear wall blocked and mutilated round-headed two-light wooden window frame. Modern stairs rise to converted attic with two purlins to either side and some exposed panelling to end walls.

Brick extensions to the rear are wholly or largely of the C20 and are not of special interest.

HISTORY: The property stands on the north side of High Street, at the point where it starts to broaden eastwards into a classic expanded medieval street market place. Late C19 Ordnance Survey mapping shows a degraded plot pattern but it would seem likely that the property originated as a medieval burgage. No. 85 High Street (to its west, on High Street's junction with One Bell Lane) is a C17 and later timber-framed building (listed Grade II); number 87 to its east is C14 and cruck-framed (Grade II). No. 86 has probably long been a shop with residential accommodation above, and this remains the case today.

SUMMARY OF IMPORTANCE: The core of 86 High Street is a two-storey timber-framed building, probably of C17 date. Substantial parts of its frame survive from ground floor to roof. Internally various sections of the timber-framed core are visible at ground- and first-floor level and in the converted attic. Internally visible details include part of an original wooden window to the first-floor rear wall and decorative elements such brackets and stops. Later, probably in the later C18 or early C19, it was refronted in brick, pushing the building line outward onto the pavement by about 0.5m. Changes have been made over the years to enable the building's continued use but these have not detracted from its essential character or interest. The C20 extensions to the rear, and especially the outer, flat-roofed, one, are not of special interest.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

502405

Legacy System:

LBS

End of official list entry

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