19 Silver Street

Summary

A C17 cottage extended in the late C20.

Reasons for Designation

No. 19 Silver Street, a single cell cottage probably dating to the C17, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

* Historical Interest: This is a rarely surviving example of an early vernacular dwelling, with C17 origins. Its development into the early C19 is illustrated by the structure;
* Intactness: A significant proportion of the historic fabric and plan of the cottage remains largely intact.

History

19 Silver Street is a single-cell cottage, probable of C17 date. Now one and a half storeys, it is likely that the house was originally of a single story, and a thatch stay under the small first-floor window, broken and removed in the early C21, indicates that this window, at least, was a later insertion. There is another window at this level under the gable to the south. It seems that these new windows may have been inserted in the early to mid-C19, and that the upper floor was created at the same time.

There is said to have been a stable attached to the south gable end, and the presence of an earlier structure here is confirmed by a blocked doorway and the apparent outline of a flat roof. This must have been removed before nos. 21 and 23 Silver Street were built, a pair of probably early or mid-C19 houses immediately to the south.

Although the original single-cell cottage remains a discrete unit, the house has been extended to the east twice, first in the 1960s and again in the 1980s.

Details

No. 19 Silver Street is a cottage of C17 date, extended to the east in the 1960s and 1980s. The cottage is timber framed and rendered with a thatched roof, half hipped to the south.

PLAN: This is a single-cell cottage, one room to the ground floor with an internal stack to the north. The modern additions to the east are single-storey structures opening into each other.

EXTERIOR: The west elevation has a main doorway, slightly south of centre, with a six-paned horned sash window to the north. There is another small window at ground-floor level to the south gable end. The upper floor is lit by a dormer casement window to the north end of the west elevation and a small window to the south gable.

INTERIOR: The ground floor contains a single room, heated from the north by a brick fireplace with a tiled hearth, and a modern cast-iron spiral staircase at the south-east corner. The larger boarded, joist-free, opening above suggests this may originally have been an enclosed staircase. Apart from ceiling joists, visible elements of timber frame at ground-floor level include a sill beam, resting on a plinth, a post or stud immediately to the north of the front door and another to the south of the door that opens into the modern extensions.

The upper floor contains two rooms, one very small; wall plates, gable end tie beams and posts can be seen. The internal chimney stack rises against the north gable end wall.

Sources

Books and journals
Royal Commission on Historical Monuments, , An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Huntingdonshire, (1926)

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