SNN115777 - A Post-medieval Barn & Outbuildings Range at 2 & 3, Broad Green, Wellingborough, Northants: Historic Building Record

October 2023 a Historic Building Record was made of two post-medieval barns within the curtilage of a Grade II Listed Building in the town of Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, in advance of site re-development. The listed buildings, known as Nos. 2 and 3 Broad Green, comprise two adjoining three-storey tenements built of coursed ironstone, that originated in the mid-18th century. The buildings have their frontages on High Street, facing Broad Green. The historic barns are sited at the rear of No.2 and have their frontages on a side street called Jackson’s Lane. The barns belonged to a bakehouse at No. 2, which appears to have commenced operations in the early 19th century and continued through to the second half of the 20th century, under at least three proprietorships. Owing to their extremely poor condition, the barns are to be removed, yet the façade on Jackson’s Lane is to be emulated within the new development design, in an endeavour to maintain the historic character of the street frontage. In this context, the present historic building report preserves the existing building ‘by record’ and will afford meaning and understanding of the new building’s façade. The record combines an analytical study of the structural characteristics of the barns with research of primary documentation, the latter which dates back more than two centuries. The result is not only a significantly improved appreciation of the evolution of the barns, but an expansion of existing knowledge about the history of the listed buildings. The report provides a descriptive and illustrative account of observations, by means of digital photographs and scale drawings, aided by a provisional phase plan. Five main phases of building construction are identified. The earliest phase is a single-storey stone-built structure, of uncertain function, with its frontage on Jackson’s Lane, probably erected in the 18th century. The second phase was a single-storeyed stone-built extension, possibly a cart-shed, built very early in the 19th century, again with its frontage on the lane. Re-development of the site took place at some juncture before the mid-1840s (Phase 3) and comprised two main elements. The first was the addition of an upper storey to the Phase 2 extension, which created a larger (?flour) loft area, with cart-shed and stables below. It included a room with a fireplace and chimney at one end of the building. The second element was a two-storey brick-built extension at right-angles to the original (Phase 1) stone-building, thus forming the overall L-shaped configuration, still in existence in 2023. In 1920, the earlier stone-built components of the barns suffered serious fire damage which destroyed the roofs and loft floors and damaged the load-bearing walls. The resultant restoration and attempts at structural re-stabilisation brought about a complete re-configuration of the building’s interior, the layout still in existence in 2023.