Summary
A late-C16 to early-C17 timber-framed range of cottages, extended and subdivided with a late-C18 to early-C19 front (south) range into shops and residences. C19-C21 alterations.
Reasons for Designation
Numbers 21 to 23 Eccleston Street are listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* as a late-C16/early-C17 timber-framed vernacular building that is an early survival in Prescot and retains a high proportion of its historic fabric;
* the retention of much of the timber framing demonstrates local construction methods and enables a likely reconstruction of the original building's size, form and layout;
* the late-C18/early-C19 alterations and brick extension highlight the building's evolution from domestic to commercial use;
* it forms part of a group of historic urban buildings including the medieval, timber-framed 30 Eccleston Street, later-C18 former town house and Parr's Bank, and the late-C18 17 Atherton Street, which incorporates a watch-maker's workshop, together visually enhancing and providing context to the historic streetscape.
Historic interest:
* for its C19 association with Prescot’s watch making industry, the town being at the heart of England’s watchmaking trade from the C18 until the early C20.
History
Numbers 21 to 23 Eccleston Street form part of a terrace on the north side of Eccleston Street and originated as a timber-framed range of cottages in the late C16 to early C17. In March 1982 the Archaeological Survey of Merseyside undertook an archaeological building survey of number 21 following the removal of internal plaster at the rear of the building, which uncovered evidence of timber framing that continued into number 23. Dendrochronological analysis of a re-used and partially repaired section of wall plate in the outer north wall of number 21 identified a felling date around 1543.
A 1592 survey of Prescot for King’s College, Cambridge identified the site as a burgage plot with a cottage and garden in the tenancy of Ralph Fletcher, whilst Fletcher’s father had the right to occupy the bay of the house adjoining Mill Hill (now Stone Street). The building was partially repaired or rebuilt in the early C17 and it was sub-divided again in 1620. In 1645 the building passed to the Marshall family and in 1761 it was recorded as four separate lots.
Between the late C18 and early C19 a three-bay brick south range was built abutting the south elevation of the post-medieval timber-framed range, significantly changing the appearance and plan form of the building. The building was unequally divided to form two north-south aligned units with shops to the front (south) and residences to the rear (north), with a new brick skin wall concealing the north elevation of the timber-framed range. Stairs were also inserted and attic rooms added across the building. The altered and extended building is shown for the first time on Bowran’s 1834 map of Prescot and in more detail on the 1848 OS map and 1892 Town Plan, which clearly shows number 21 with two aligned entrances (off-set east) and number 23 as a narrow building with a separate rear yard. From the 1840s to 1850s number 21 was a draper's shop, before becoming a greengrocer between the 1880s and early C20. It has been suggested that number 23 had a narrow ground-floor shop with a residence and watchmaker's workshop to the rear. It is included in a 1983 survey of watchmaker’s workshops in Prescot and there were also watchmaker’s workshops attached to the rear of number 19 and 21 (demolished C20). By the 1870s and 1880s Joseph Leyland and Henry Green, watch and clock makers, occupied the building and in the early C20 it was occupied by a watch dealer.
In the mid-C20 internal alterations were carried out to number 23 to create an L-shaped shop floor across the north-south aligned unit. A new stair was inserted. The ground-floor elongated north window was blocked and an internal ground-floor wall between the two ranges partially removed. In the mid-to-late C20 number 21 was renovated, which included the partial rebuilding of the brick north elevation with the removal of a C19 north first-floor sash window, and the removal of a brick extension attached to the rear (north). New shopfronts were installed in the late C20.
Between 2014 and 2018 the building was restored as part of the Prescot Townscape Heritage Initiative (THI). The restoration work included the installation of C19 replica shopfronts, structural repairs, and the insertion of two first-floor north windows in number 23 and a ground-floor north door and first-floor north sash window in number 21. Internally the upper floor of number 21 was adapted to a one-bed flat, with a new stair and boarding over of original features. The works uncovered further extant timber-framing, but left other areas undisturbed.
Details
Timber-framed range of cottages, late C16 to early C17, front (south) range added in the late C18 or early C19 and converted into shops and residences. Further C19 to C21 alterations.
MATERIALS: timber-framed north range with sandstone foundations, encased and infilled in local red handmade brick, with a red handmade-brick south range. Slate roof coverings, cast-iron downpipes.
PLAN: two east-west aligned ranges subdivided north to south into two premises. The principal frontage (south) is a later part of the building and is a late-C18/early-C19 three-bay red brick range facing Eccleston Street. It is attached to the south elevation of a late-C16/early-C17 timber box-framed range. The ground-floor has two shops and the upper floor of number 21 is residential accommodation.
EXTERIOR: the building is of two-storeys under a double-pitched slated roof with three chimneystacks to the gable ends (two to the south, one to the north, and all partially rebuilt in the early C21); the north-west chimney is in-set on the ridge.
The front (south) elevation has two reproduction C19 shop frontages (recreated from a circa 1910 photograph) with pedimented and carved scroll brackets ornamented with swagged fruits and awning boxes. The first floor is built in irregular English garden wall bond (partially repaired in the early C21) with a straight joint mid-way down number 23 indicating two separate construction phases, with two bays to number 21 and a narrow single-bay to number 23. It has three segmental headed windows with brick headers and stone sills, and replica C19 sash glazing, beneath a simple eaves gutter.
The east elevation of number 23, visible from the ginnel (Stone Street), has two gable ends; the north one of which gives the clearest visible evidence of the timber-framed building. The other gable end, which belongs to the late-C18/early-C19 range, is built in irregular brick bond and has stone quoins to the lower south-east corner (set behind the shop frontage). It contains a bricked-up opening (former loading door) to the south and an off-set cast-metal wall tie displaying the crest of the Stanleys (the Earls of Derby, Knowsley Hall). There is a distinct joint and change of alignment around the valley between the gables which corresponds to the original southern limit of the timber framed range. The exposed timber-framed north gable of the late-C16/early-C17 range has a box frame with square-panel infills in stretcher and header brick bond. The lower timber framing is concealed by a boundary wall, with bitumen roofing bridging the narrow gap between them. The wall posts rise to square-cut jowels supporting the exposed tie beam, wall plates and an upper king-post truss. The truss was formerly a queen post truss, but following repairs in the 1980s the queen struts were removed leaving the collar beam and a subsidiary vertical strut. The principal purlins and a subsidiary purlin are exposed and trenched into the principal rafters.
The timber frame to the rear (north) elevation is concealed behind a brick skin wall mostly rebuilt in the late C20, except for the north-east corner and the partial ground floor of number 23, which is built in English Garden wall bond and retains a late-C18 to early-C19 segmental-headed door with an early-C21 door and a similar elongated window (now blocked). The first floor of number 23 has two narrow early-C21 first-floor windows. Number 21 has two ground-floor doors; a C21 eastern door provides access to a first-floor apartment and the western door provides access into the rear ground-floor room (kitchen - 2021). The first floor has a narrow C21 window and a C21 replica sash window to the west. The west elevation abuts number 19 Eccleston Street.
INTERIOR:
NUMBER 21: the two-room floor plan consists of two western bays of the front (south) range and four timber-framed bays of the north range. Much of the interior is hidden (2021) behind C21 boarding and fittings. The southern ground-floor room (shop floor) has a C19 metal moulded rail running along the north wall and a short C20 north-south aligned stair at the eastern end which gives access to the ground-floor room in the north range (kitchen – 2021). In the north room one timber post is known to survive within the northern outer wall, cut away about 50cm from the ground level with surrounding brickwork. A C21 ceiling conceals oak ceiling joists, which are trenched into a north-south aligned chamfered oak spine beam, which itself is supported by vertical timber posts buried in the north and south walls of the room. The survival of timber-framing in the south wall is not known. A butt joint in the brick-work of the west chimney-breast (now concealed) indicates that the original chimney breast was extended east (probably in the late C18 to early C19) to insert a first-floor quarter-winder stair behind (aligned with the west wall), and the west gable end was rebuilt and the chimneystack built inset on the roof ridge. Aligned against the south wall of the room (the former south wall of the late-C16 or early-C17 range) is a boxed-in timber quarter-winder stair, which formed a central stair and landing between first-floor rooms. The stair is now blocked and adapted on the ground-floor into a cupboard with four quarter-winders still visible. A C20 lavatory has been inserted on the north side of the chimneybreast and to the east there is an external door in the north wall.
The first floor is accessed externally from a C21 north door and stair aligned against the internal late-C18 to early-C19 east wall, and rises to a quarter landing with a north room (en-suite bedroom – 2021) and south room (lounge and kitchen – 2021). The south room has C21 boarding and fittings. In the north room four vertical timber posts are known to survive within the outer north wall, and the most easterly post is a structural part of a former dividing wall between number 21 and 23 (with the sockets for staves existing in the underside of the wall plate). A re-used C16 north wall plate (with evidence of mortices and peg holes from a previous structure) is not continuous and has a short bridging length of re-used timber inserted between the main post and an adjoining post to the west. In the inner southern wall of the room two posts are known to survive; the eastern post again marking the former timber-framed internal dividing wall between number 21 and 23. This arrangement suggests that the north range was originally two late-C16 or early-C17 single-cell cottages; each cell three-bays wide. The west wall of the north room is late-C18 to early-C19 plastered brick, into which is re-set the western end of the north timber wall-plate. The remains of a late-C18 to early-C19 stair remain concealed behind the room’s chimneybreast. A C21 ceiling conceals two unchamfered structural oak binder beams running at 90 degrees to the floor below, which carry oak joists. The timber joists are re-used, with notches and peg holes for mortice and tenon joints. Access to the south range's attic is now through a ceiling hatch in the north room.
NUMBER 23: the two-room plan form of number 23 consists of one bay of the south range and two bays of the north range. The ground-floor shop floor is the product of C20 alterations with late-C20 boardings and fittings. A folding door in the north wall accesses a mid-C20 stair with a small kitchenette inserted beneath. A narrow mid-C20 L-shaped quarter-winder stair abuts the north and east wall of the north range, with a quarter landing giving access to an external north door. The stair rises into the centre of the former late-C18 to early-C19 north room, with C20 stud walls inserted to provide two cupboards, a lavatory and a temporary kitchen. An exposed chamfered beam (aligned east-west) runs from the south end of the chimneybreast on the east wall through to number 21. The beam forms part of the timber girders of a framed triple floor carrying binders and floor joists above. The south room of the south range has a chimneybreast to the east wall. Its north wall has a visible north-west square-cut late-C18 to early-C19 wall post with birdsmouth notch supporting a wall-plate and coved lath and plaster ceiling, probably concealing the north range’s roof rafters.
ROOF STRUCTURE: the roof structure of the buildings' north range was formerly interconnected, but has since been separated to create an attic each for number 21 and 23. The roof consists of a principal rafter roof of two bays with an off-set central king-post truss with subsidiary struts forming the late-C16 or early-C17 division between number 21 and 23 with some wattle and daub infill panels remaining. The subsidiary north strut of the central king-post truss was cut away in the late C18 to early C19 to allow access between the two attics (fixings for a door remain in situ). It is now boxed in behind modern plasterboard following the early-C21 separation of the attic spaces. The east gable end of number 23 has an off-set brick chimney-stack. Chamfered principal purlins are trenched into the principal rafters of the trusses, with straight braces between the truss and principal purlins at the gable ends, and slimmer common rafters above.
The roof structure of number 21's south range contains a principal rafter roof where the rafters are jointed at the apex and trenched into the purlins. The south range's roof in number 23 has a principal rafter roof re-using late-C16 or early-C17 timber framing (with evidence of mortices and peg holes) as principal and ridge purlins, and these run through an internal brick gable wall dividing number 21 and 23. Common rafters are strengthened by C21 timber and the joists are set into the south brick elevation, with a chimneystack abutting the east gable.
