Download Historic Building Assessment

Historic Building Assessment
185 Watling Street,
Towcester
(SP 69294868)
Introduction
185 Watling Street dominates the west side of Towcester Market Square with its wide frontage of
painted brickwork and classical doorways. The principal entrance has double Tuscan pilasters
supporting a shallow entablature and cornice and the side entrance is a derivative of a ‘Gibbs’
surround with staged vousoirs that increase in depth and projection. It provides a classical element to
Market Square and is one of the few residential buildings on Watling Street that has not been radically
altered for commercial use.
Locally the building is known as ‘Mr Budge’s House’, which derived from the name of a solicitor that
owned it in the second half of the twentieth century. The building has not been accessible to building
historians and so has been dated from visible external features; this is reflected by the 1951 listing
description which dates it to the mid-eighteenth century with nineteenth century alterations. Map
evidence initially indicated that the building may have been completely rebuilt in the mid-nineteenth
century but this has proved to be incorrect as recent photographs of the roof space of 185 Watling
Street show that the building has medieval roof timbers surviving in situ.
History
Two maps of the Easton Neston Estate dating from 1806 and circa 1830 (NRO: TC 101a and map
2922) show that both 183 and 185 Watling Street formed a single building with rear wings enclosing a
large courtyard. This plan form is typical of an inn and the occurrence of matching rear corridors in
both premises reinforces this analysis.
Documentary evidence for 185 Watling Street is good as it abuts the Talbot, formerly Tabard Inn,
which can be traced back to fifteenth century. A deed of 1451 (NRO:TC793) shows that an inn called
‘The Angel’ lay on one side of the Tabard Inn and that another inn, ‘The Swan’, lay on the other.
There is little doubt that the site of 185 Watling was partially or completely on the site of the Angel
Inn and that the present buildings of 189-193 Watling Street are on the site of the ‘Swan’.
There is evidence that the Angel Inn existed in 1448. Two documents (NRO Fermor-Hesketh
Muniments box F, bundle 16, doc 9 & bundle 14, doc 6 ) record a transaction between the trustees of
the will of Archdeacon Sponne and Robert Wale of Towcester for the Angel Inn together with three
new-built tenements to the east. An historic building survey of 183 Watling Street in 2009 suggests
that it may have been on the site of one of the three tenements to the east of The Angel. The exposed
timber frame had no mortises within its north-west wall confirming that the building continued to the
west i.e. it was a separate structure to No. 185. This was probably the site of the first of the three
tenements recorded as new built in 1448 – the others being No. 181 (Elliots the Butchers) and 179
Watling Street.
It is of interest that The Angel was owned by Archdeacon Sponne and was subject to a conveyance in
1448, the year of his death. Sponne also owned the adjacent Tabard Inn, the income from which was
used for his bequests to the town, which included the creation of a chantry within the church, a
grammar school and for the maintenance of the roads and pavements of the town. Sponne was a
wealthy cleric who was Rector of Towcester but also attained a high position within the church. The
construction of the three tenements adjacent to the Angel Inn suggests that he was also an entrepreneur
erecting properties as an investment.
The known owners of the Angel Inn are:
Pre 1448 - Archdeacon William Sponne
1448 - Robert Wale
1449 - James Swetenham
1457 - Thomas Billyng the younger & wife Margery
1720 - Lord Lempster
1855- Lord Pomfret
1910 -Lord Hesketh
The known tenants of the Angel Inn are
1720 - James Janson
1753 - Joseph Cook
1823-4 - John Martin
The building appears to have ceased being an inn about 1825 as it is not mentioned in the 1826 Pigot
& Co. Directory by which date John Martin had taken over the Dolphin Inn in Towcester. Details of
the later occupiers of No. 185 Watling Street can be traced through the census returns and 1910
‘Doomsday’ rating:
1841 to 1861 - John Malmesbury Cooke, solicitor
1871 - Charles George Barr, curate of Towcester
1881 - 1891 – Arthur E Greville, solicitor
1901 - unknown
1910 – H. A. Norris
The building formed part of the Easton Neston Estate prior to 1720 when it was owned by Lord
Lempster (Beds R.O: ST 127) and remained part of the estate until after the 1910 revaluation.
Analysis
The plans submitted with two 2008 planning applications for both 183 & 185 Watling Street show
remnants of an early-nineteenth century inn plan as both buildings have identically positioned rear
corridors. This is confirmed by the maps of 1806 and circa 1830 which suggest the presence of a
courtyard inn on the site of both buildings in the late-Georgian period. Detailed rating maps of
Towcester dated 1848 & 1855 surprisingly show a narrow gap between the two buildings, which may
indicate the position of coach entrance to the rear yard. They also suggest that the present façade of
185 Watling Street post dates 1855. A drawing of the town circa 1860 shows that the building had its
present elevation, which indicates that the brick façade with classical doorways was commissioned
during John Cooke’s ownership, circa 1860.
Two photographs of the roof space, given to the author by Mr Hart, provide a tantalising glimpse of
the hidden fabric of this building and its significance. Taken from the southern end of the building,
one of the photographs shows that there are at least five bays of roofing and that two of the trusses
have arch- bracing. Soot blackening is apparent on one arch-braced truss with two raking queen posts
mortised into the principal rafters and on the plastered infill of a closed truss with a central upright and
two cambered braces. These provide clear evidence that the building contains medieval timbers in situ
and evidence for an open hall. There is no reason to doubt that these are the remains of the medieval
Angel Inn as they are typical fifteenth century features.
The few early buildings surviving in the town are of timber-framed construction and it is likely that
the medieval Angel Inn was also fully timber-framed. During the post-medieval period much earlier
timber-framing was hidden behind rebuilt facades, and this trend continued through to the early-
twentieth century when the Chantry House had its jettied, timber-framed front wall replaced with
stone. The replacement of the ground floor of 183 Watling Street in 2009 revealed that components of
a timber-framed building had been re-used as floor joists. These included a corner post, the sill or head
of a four or five light window and mid rails with mortises. Some of timbers retained fragments of early
paintwork. It proved impossible to fit all these elements within the known design of the timber-frame
of No. 183. As both 183 & 185 Watling Street were in the same ownership, under the same leasehold
and probably refaced at approximately the same time, it is possible that some of these timbers may
have come from the Angel Inn. The best of these timbers were saved and now form part of the
collection of Towcester Museum.
Significance
The full significance of the building cannot be established until a detailed historic building survey has
taken place. However, from the evidence so far gained there is little doubt that the building is of
regional importance and may be of national significance. Medieval inns still retaining evidence for an
open hall are far from common. Within Northamptonshire the only other fifteenth century inn with
surviving evidence for an open hall is the New Inn at Fotheringhay, built post 1461 for Edward IV to
provide additional accommodation for Fotheringhay Castle. Interestingly the apex of the central truss
is similar to 185 Watling Street having two queen struts rising from an arch-braced collar (see RCHM
Northamptonshire Inventory vol.6 p.72). The Royal George at Cottingham has an early-thirteenth
century hall roof of cruck construction but it is not known whether this building was an inn at this
early period.
Within Towcester, 185 Watling Street is of considerable importance as it is one of the earliest known
inns within the town. It probably predates the Chantry House and may be the town’s earliest building
apart from the church. The links with Archdeacon Sponne are good and in its latter phase it was the
home of some of the town’s leading solicitors. It also illustrates how one of the town’s inns was in
decline over a decade before the completion of the London to Birmingham Railway in 1838, which
seriously affected coach travel on Watling Street and Towcester’s inn trade.
Planning
The building was listed grade II in 1951 and is located within Towcester Conservation Area
Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank Mr. Rod Conlon for his contributions to this report.
Author
Brian Giggins MA MIFA
1 Orchard Close
Towcester NN12 6BP
Date
February 2010