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Nantwich High Street, Cheshire, England
Pictured right: the swinemarket in Nantwich, with Regent House and the High Street in the background.
46 High Street, Nantwich, Cheshire, England
46 High Street is a timber-framed, black-and-white Elizabethan merchant's house in Nantwich, Cheshire, England, located near the town square at the corner of High Street and Castle Street. The present building dates from shortly after the fire of 1583, and is believed to have been built for Thomas Churche, a linen merchant from one of the prominent families of the town. It remained in the Churche family until the late 19th century.
High Street was the home of the wealthiest townspeople in the 1580s, and the houses dating from the rebuilding form the finest examples of post-fire architecture in the town.[1] A substantial and fine example of its type, 46 High Street features ornamental panelling, jetties and brackets decorated with carved human figures and animals. On the interior, a first-floor room retains panelling and decorative plasterwork dating from the early 17th century. The building is listed at grade II*.[2] It is currently used as a book shop and coffee shop.
Archaeological findings
Test holes drilled during restoration work in the mid-1980s revealed that the front part of the building was built on unconsolidated ground; this was found to be 7 feet in depth and to extend 15 feet back from the High Street. Architect Jim Edleston speculates that this might represent one of the ditches of Nantwich Castle.[3] Fabric with embroidery and leather shoe laces were recovered from the test holes.[3]
History
Carvings of Thomas and Anne Churche on corbels
A house stood on this site before the fire of 1583, probably built for Thomas Churche (or Church), a mercer or linen merchant.[4][5][6] The Churche family numbered among the town's gentry during the 15–17th centuries, and Thomas was the nephew of Richard Churche, a wealthy merchant for whom Churche's Mansion on nearby Hospital Street was built.[4][5][7] In common with almost all of the town east of the River Weaver, the house was destroyed in the fire of 1583. It was rebuilt shortly afterwards, probably in 1584, at a cost of £120, of which £20 came from the town rebuilding fund.[6][8][9] After the rebuilding, the adjacent house (now 42–44 High Street) was owned by Richard Churche's son, William, who was also in the linen trade.[10][11]
In 1586, Thomas Churche married Anne Mainwaring, who came from another prominent Nantwich family.[5][12] Before its restoration, the church contained a memorial tablet with portraits of the couple.[12][13] George Ormerod's History describes these as depicting "an aged male and female figure holding up their hands in prayer; both having large ruffs; the man has a venerable beard and red cap edged with lace; the female a close cap and high-crowned hat."[12] They are also probably the subject of portraits on two of the present building's corbels.[4] Thomas Churche died in 1635, and is buried in St Mary's Church.[5][12] His will describes the house, bequeathed to his wife (who died in 1639), as "my Messuage or Burgage lyinge and beinge in Wich Malbank".[5] The post-mortem inventory was valued at a total of £311 11s 10d; possessions mentioned in the will include a "drawing table in the Great Chamber".[5] A nude female figure, lacking arms, carved in a black-painted wooden corbel. In the background are repeated decorative motifs including circles, lozenges and scrollwork. Carved caryatid In 1723–24, the house is mentioned in the marriage settlement of Saboth Churche, Thomas Churche's great-grandson, as "One Messuage and one Shop with their Appurtenances situate in High Town [High Street] adjoining to the Pudding Lane [Castle Street]".[5] An 1874 directory carried an advertisement for the High Street premises of William Church & Co., "general drapers, silk mercers, milliners, dressmakers, tailors, & gentlemen's mercers",[14] and the building remained in the Churche family until a few years before James Hall's History of 1883.[5] The building has since housed another tailor's and draper's shop, Lovatt's (late 19th century), and been the premises for two ironmongers, George Bros. (from 1900) and Frank Clayton (mid-20th century), and the electrical retailer, Rumbelows (c. 1970s–1990s).[4][15][16][17][18] It became a bookshop in 1997, initially in the Bookland chain, and became the independent Nantwich Bookshop in 2003.[19]
Description
46 High Street is located at SJ 65099 52305, on the corner of High Street and Castle Street, immediately south west of the town square.[20] It is a timber-framed building of two storeys with attics. It has two gables to the front face on High Street and three gables to the side on Castle Street.[2][21] The High Street face abuts the adjacent house (42–44 High Street), which was built at the same time.[8] The first and attic floors on the High Street face are not horizontal; the noticeable dip in the centre is caused by subsidence, and was already evident in a photograph dated around 1890.[15] The external timbers are painted black, with white-painted plaster panels, giving a black-and-white appearance.[2] There are large jetties to the first floor and attic storey, not only on the front face but also on the Castle Street side; usually only the main street face was jettied.[2][22] The jetties all feature plaster coving underneath.[4] The corbels (brackets) all bear carvings featuring human and animal subjects against a decorative background.[2][4][21] These include two carved busts on the first floor jetties of the Castle Street face, which are probably portraits of Thomas and Anne Churche, and are similar to those of Richard and Margerye Churche at Churche's Mansion. Other carvings include a nude caryatid (female figure supporting a structure) on the corner, a Renaissance device, as well as a sheep, a bear and a half-length portrait of a clothed woman.[4]
Both the High Street and Castle Street faces have decorative framing on the two upper storeys, which is made up of small panels containing ornamental devices. The design uses ogee bracing, similar to that at Churche's Mansion; it is elaborated on the High Street façade with spurs. Ornamental panelling, the most expensive and highest status type of timber framing, was very fashionable in the Elizabethan period.[4] The ground floor of the Castle Street side was originally close studded with a middle rail, another expensive type of framing; this was still present in around 1883, but has since been replaced.[4][23] 46 High Street is one of two houses built after the fire which originally used both decorative panels and close studding, the other being 3 Church Lane. Both types of framing are also used together on the earlier Churche's Mansion and Sweetbriar Hall.[4] The windows are mullioned and transomed, with originally eight or ten lights. The mullions and transoms are in wood and have ovolo mouldings with narrow fillets.[2][4] Two eight-light windows are believed to date from the 17th century.[2] The High Street bays have modern shop windows to the ground floor. The visible beams are ovolo moulded and feature brattishing, a form of decorative cresting.[4] There is a slate roof, although like the other rebuilt merchants' houses on the High Street, number 46 probably originally had a tiled rather than thatched roof, a sign of wealth that was also an effective protection against the fires that destroyed parts of Hospital Street and Welsh Row in the 17th century.[1][2] The timber frame uses soffit tenons with diminished haunch, a particularly high-quality type of carpentry joint invented early in the 16th century.[22] A black-and-white building in a corner position, with two gables to the front and one visible to the left side. On the street in front is a pavement café. Modern building, with pavement café Number 46 is unusual among the merchant's houses in the town centre in being two bays wide; most similar houses originally had only a single bay. The original house probably incorporated a shop on the ground floor. In the original plan, the two principal chambers would have been on the first floor.[24] One of the first-floor rooms, now used as a café, is a good example of a living chamber with decoration dating from the early 17th century. The walls have full-height oak panelling topped with an Ionic frieze, and the ceiling has decorative plasterwork in the intervening spaces between the beams, featuring strapwork and fretting.[2][24]
Modern building
As of 2013, the building is an independent bookshop and coffee shop, Nantwich Bookshop.[25] It was featured as one of The Independent 's top fifty bookshops in the UK in 2012.[26] The modern High Street still contains many other good examples of Elizabethan timber-framed buildings, all of which date from after the fire; these include the Queen's Aid House, which stands opposite number 46, and the grade-I-listed Crown Inn.[21]
Warwick House (left) Regent House (right)
Regent House, Nantwich High Street
References
^ Jump up to: a b Lake, pp. 30, 93–95, 104 ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i "46 High Street, Nantwich", National Heritage List for England (English Heritage), retrieved 15 June 2010 ^ Jump up to: a b Edleston J. (May 1986), "The restoration of No. 46, High Street, Nantwich", Nantwich Museum News (Nantwich Museum) 6 ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j k l Lake, pp. 106–11 ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h Hall, pp. 440–48 ^ Jump up to: a b Stevenson, p. 18 Jump up ^ Lake, pp. 38, 41, 43 ^ Jump up to: a b Lake, p. 130 Jump up ^ Garton, p. 78 Jump up ^ Garton, p. 81 Jump up ^ Hall, pp. 76, 446 ^ Jump up to: a b c d Hall, p. 316 Jump up ^ Lake, p. 59 Jump up ^ Morris & Co.'s Directory (1874) ^ Jump up to: a b Wheeler & Lamberton, p. 9 Jump up ^ Simpson, plate 32 Jump up ^ Bavington et al., pp. 11, 42–44 Jump up ^ Vaughan, p. 22 Jump up ^ "Independent Bookseller of the Month: The Nantwich Bookshop", Bookhugger (AMS Digital Publishing Ltd), 19 October 2010, retrieved 12 April 2013 Jump up ^ "Centre of Nantwich, centred on High Street, showing listed buildings", Interactive Mapping (Cheshire East, Cheshire West and Chester), retrieved 13 April 2013 ^ Jump up to: a b c Pevsner & Hubbard, pp. 287–88 ^ Jump up to: a b Lake, p. 102 Jump up ^ Hall, p. 110 ^ Jump up to: a b Lake, pp. 120–22, 130 Jump up ^ Support Your Local Independent Bookshop, Nantwich Bookshop, retrieved 12 April 2013 Jump up ^ Batten R (20 January 2012), "The 50 Best bookshops", The Independent (Independent Print Limited), retrieved 12 April 2013
The Crown Hotel, Nantwich High Street
For more than 400 years The Crown Hotel has reigned over Nantwich High Street
– the black and white facade, majestically bowed with age, topped by its impressive sweep of leaded windows which lit the second floor gallery dominates the street. It is hard now to imagine that in the early 1960’s developers were casting envious eyes on its prime site and wondering if they could get permission to bulldoze the ancient building! To the eternal credit of Cheshire County Council they moved swiftly to impose one of the County’s first preservation orders to thwart any future development. That, as we are inclined to say at The Crown – is history! The Hotels story goes back much further even than its rebuilding after The Great Fire which destroyed half of Nantwich in 1583. The Crown – it was at that time. The Crown and Sceptre was the most important of 7 inns which were reduced to ashes. A national appeal was launched to rebuild the town and with money donated to this and timbers from the Royal Forest of Delamere donated by Queen Elizabeth 1 the Crown Hotel was able to once again open its doors to 16th century travellers. It is believed that the building destroyed by the Great Fire was comparatively new built about the mid-16th century, however, there is evidence that the cellars date back about 600 years. Over the years the Crown has been the scene of many memorable occasions. Field Marshall Combermere gave a sumptuous dinner in the Georgian Assembly rooms – recently restored to offer exquisite surroundings – to mark his successes on the Indian sub-continent. The news of the great victory of the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 was given to cheering crowds at The Crown, to be followed by a night of merry making and an ox roast in the nearby Town Square. Of course, The Crown was naturally a coaching house providing a stop for, among others the ‘Royal Chester’ which ran a service three times a week between Chester and London, calling at Nantwich, Lichfield and Northampton. The Hotel has also been a traditional centre for outstanding property auctions and in years gone by flocks of Welsh sheep, herded on foot from over the border, were auctioned here.
The Crown
The Queen's Aid House (41 High Street)
The Queen's Aid House, or 41 High Street, is a timber-framed, black-and-white Elizabethan merchant's house in Nantwich, Cheshire, England. It is located on the High Street immediately off the town square and opposite the junction with Castle Street (at SJ6512752298). It is listed at grade II.[1] Built shortly after the fire of 1583 by Thomas Cleese, a local craftsman, it has three storeys with attics, and features ornamental panelling, overhangs or jetties at each storey, and a 19th-century oriel window. The building is best known for its contemporary inscription commemorating Elizabeth I's aid in rebuilding the town, which gives the building its name. It has been used as a café, as well as various types of shop.
The High Street was the home of the wealthiest townspeople in the 1580s, and the houses dating from the rebuilding form the finest examples of post-fire architecture in the town.[2] The modern High Street still contains many other good examples of Elizabethan timber-framed buildings, all of which date from after the fire; these include the grade-II*-listed number 46, which stands opposite the Queen's Aid House, and the grade-I-listed Crown Inn.[3]
Queen's Aid House
History
In December of 1583, a fire destroyed most of Nantwich to the east of the River Weaver. According to the contemporary account of Richard Wilbraham, 150 houses burned down, and the devastation was such that a national relief fund was organised to help pay for the town's rebuilding.[4] The appeal was successful: "every person damaged in the loss of their houses have been holpen and relieved in some portion".[5] Elizabeth I personally contributed – the only time that she is known to have done so – giving £1000 (around £200,000 today).[6][7] The Queen's Aid House was built as a merchant's house shortly after the fire by local craftsman Thomas Cleese.[3][8][9] Cleese (also known as Clease or Clowes) appears to have been the town's master builder from around 1550 until after the fire. He is also known to have built Churche's Mansion, a grade-I-listed Elizabethan mansion at the end of Hospital Street, as well as the roofs to the north and south transepts of St Mary's Church.[3][8][9] The building bears a signed inscription dated 1584, and the house is likely to have been completed that year. The original owner is unknown. Based on the signature to the inscription, it has been suggested that Cleese built the house for himself; before the fire, however, he was recorded as a tenant in Pepper Street.[10][11] In the original layout, there would have been a shop on the ground floor facing the street, with a hall behind giving access to a buttery and kitchen.[12]
The well-known Nonconformist preacher, Matthew Henry, died of apoplexy in the house on 22 June 1714, after visiting the town to preach at the Presbyterian Meeting House on Pepper Street.[1][13] He was staying with the Reverend Joseph Mottershead, the minister of the Meeting House.[13] When local historian James Hall wrote in the 1880s, the Queen's Aid House had been a grocer's shop for at least a century, and had then been occupied by William Sandford since at least 1874.[14][15] On 16 November 1882, it survived a fire which destroyed its neighbour, a draper's shop.[14] It remained a grocer's shop run by Wardle & Hughes and later Arthur Bentley until at least 1914.[16] In the 1910s and 1920s it was the Queen Bess Café, which appears in a Nantwich postcard, but by 1939 had returned to being a grocer's, the Star Tea Company.[17][18][19] In the 1980s it sold confectionery and tobacco products.[17] The building was restored in 2010. As of 2010, it is one of the Rippleglen chain of newsagent's shops.[20]
Description
The Queen's Aid House is a tall black-and-white building of three storeys plus attics under a tiled roof, with a timber frame infilled with plaster.[1][3] Each floor is jettied; the corbels supporting the overhangs are carved with faces and other motifs.[1][3][21] In common with most merchant's houses of this date in Nantwich, its single gable faces the street, with all the accommodation fitting into a single bay's width.[12] The gable is topped with a finial.
There is ornamental panelling to all storeys except the ground floor, which has a modern shop front.[1][3][21] Motifs include ogee lozenges, similar to the decoration of Churche's Mansion, as well as quatrefoils and herringbone patterns.[3] The first storey is flanked by a pair of fluted pilasters, which are in early Renaissance style.[1] None of the windows is original. The first storey has a canted oriel window dating from the 19th century; the second storey has two sash windows, and the attic storey has a single small window with a semicircular arched head.[1] On the second storey, between the two windows, is a carved wooden plaque, which commemorates the aid given by the queen in rebuilding the town:[1][3][8] God Grante Our R[o]yal Queen In England Longe To Raign For She Hath Put Her Helping Hand To Bild This Towne Again[8] A second carved inscription, in two panels under the second-storey jetty, reads: Thomas Cleese Made This Worke The Yeare of Our Lorde God. 1584[8] On the interior, the ground-floor room facing the street has beams with ovolo moulding.[12]
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Sources
Bavington G, Edge B, Finch H et al. Nantwich, Worleston & Wybunbury: A Portrait in Old Picture Postcards (Brampton Publications; 1987) (ISBN 0-9511469-6-3) Garton E. Tudor Nantwich: A Study of Life in Nantwich in the Sixteenth Century (Cheshire County Council Libraries and Museums; 1983) (ISBN 0-903017-05-9) Hall J. A History of the Town and Parish of Nantwich, or Wich Malbank, in the County Palatine of Chester (2nd edn) (E. J. Morten; 1972) (ISBN 0-901598-24-0) Lake J. The Great Fire of Nantwich (Shiva Publishing; 1983) (ISBN 0-906812-57-7) Pevsner N, Hubbard E. The Buildings of England: Cheshire (Penguin Books; 1971) (ISBN 0-14-071042-6) Simpson R. Crewe and Nantwich: A Pictorial History (Phillimore; 1991) (ISBN 0-85033-724-0) Stevenson PJ. Nantwich: A Brief History and Guide (1994) Vaughan D. Nantwich: It Was Like This (Nantwich Museum; 1987) Wheeler A, Lamberton A. Nantwich in Old Photographs (The History Press; 2012) (ISBN 978-0752458304)
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