Building record 638/0/114 - No.3 High Street

Town house, now photographer's studio and shop premises. C15 with C19 and C20 alterations and extensions. Until c2017, the frontage was rendered and whitewashed, but the timber-frame has since been exposed and repaired.

{1} Town house, now photographer's studio and shop premises. C15 with C19 and C20 alterations and extensions. Rendered and whitewashed timber-frame with rubblestone and brick to rear. Plain tile roof. 2 storeys, attic and cellar. Front is a 2-window range at first floor of C20 windows with a C20 shop front below. Doors to far left and centre right. Rear has a 2-storey C19 brick wing and a lean-to extension. C20 fenestration. Rear wall is of rubblestone with part rebuilt in brick and the rubblestone section has, set high in the wall, half of a moulded stone lintel with a depressed Tudor arch profile.
INTERIOR. Ground floor has C20 character but retains intersecting bridging beams with a wide flat chamfer which have slight ogee stops. The front to rear beam is probably in the line of the chamfered wall post on the floor above and one of the C15 roof trusses in the roof space. First floor is also mainly C20 in character but an old lintel is visible above a front window and also a part of a bridging beam. In the roof space there is close-studded framing on the upper part of the front wall and in the right hand (west) gable wall. There are remains of a lateral stack in the rear wall. Jowled wall posts and curved braces support the roof trusses. Roof is of two and a half bays of cambered tie beam trusses with two tiers of through purlins with curved wind-braces. The trusses are very unusual in that they are a king and queen post combination. Queen post with struts from the ties to the lower tier of purlins and curved braces from the collars to the upper tier of purlins, then in the centre is a king post rising from the tie to the apex of the principal rafters. The survival of so much structure of a C15 house in a Northamptonshire urban setting is of considerable special architectural interest.

{2} Repair and conservation of the building was undertaken in 2017-8. Once the render had been removed, and the historic fabric exposed, a programme of archaeological recording work took place. The recording work was supported by information contained within the Design and Access Statement {3}.
The building was originally two uneven units (1/3 to the east side and 2/3 on the west side) constructed in a single phase in c 1450. Most of a timber-framed party wall was removed in the 19th century. Very little else other than modern materials can be seen at ground floor level. At first floor level, the insertion of the 18th/19th century Georgian windows appears to have cut across a number of vertical studs and horizontal cross-rails. At a similar height to the inserted Georgian windows are a series of redundant long thin mortices on the outer faces of the posts; these seem to be evidence of the original oriel windows. Removal of the modern render revealed two narrow arched boards of wood (probably oak) set between closely posts. The underside of the arches are chamfered and are clearly meant to be seen from the street. Remnants of lime plaster infill between the studs are still present in some parts of the elevation. The infill comprises a thin piece of stone wedged into a vertical groove in the side of the studs and covered with a layer of lime plaster. Small areas of brick packing and infilling across the frontage of probable 19th-century date. There was a fire in the 19th century and these may be a repair from that date.

{5} Photo possibly 1947;

<1> English Heritage, 2000, Listed Buildings Online, 909/0/10005 (checked) (Database). SNN105526.

<2> Hyam, A., 2018, An archaeological observation, investigation, recording and analysis at Numbers 3 + 3a High Street, Daventry, Northamptonshire (Report). SNN111689.

<3> Warren, D., 2013, Timber-Frame 3-3a High Street, Daventry. Supporting Information for Planning Permission, Conservation Area Consent, Listed Building Consent (Report). SNN111690.

<4> Crank, N. (Editor), 2019, South Midlands Archaeology (49), p. 88 (Journal). SNN111755.

<5> Photographs of buildings in Daventry (Photographs). SNN112541.

Record last edited

Jun 30 2021 12:53PM