Summary

63 Market Place, Swaffham, a house dating to around 1540 with adaptations in the C18, converted into a shop in the C19 with further alterations in 1965.

Description

A house dating to around 1540 and converted into a shop in the C19 with further alterations in 1965.

MATERIALS: rendered and colour-washed brick and flint walls, and a pantile roof covering.

PLAN: the building faces west onto the Market Place. It has an approximately square plan with a small rear north extension, and a single-storey shopfront extension on the frontage, probably added around 1965.

EXTERIOR: the two-storey building is two window bays wide under a shallow-pitched roof. This has a red brick ridge stack set right of centre and a dentil eaves cornice. The original ground floor is obscured by the single-storey shop front, added in 1965, which has two wide bowed windows with wooden glazing bars. The first floor is lit by two two-over-two pane horned sash windows with small scallop-edged hoods, originally for external blinds.

INTERIOR: on the ground floor there are mid-C16 roll-moulded bridging beams with run-out stops. The interior also retains some mid-C18 large-framed panelling, and two-panel doors with HL hinges on the first floor.

History

Swaffham’s significance in the medieval period stemmed from its position on the crossroads of the main routes from London, Norwich and King’s Lynn. The first written record of a market in the town, which was established on a triangular-shaped area formed by the convergence of the aforementioned roads, was in 1215 when King John issued a royal writ to the Sherriff of Norfolk to abolish it should it ‘damage the market in Dunham’. It was never abolished and expanded rapidly. The Market Place was probably open to the church on its east side, but later C17 development closed this off, while the development of The Shambles in the middle in the late C18/early-C19, further reduced the size of the open space. From the mid-C18, for a period of just over a hundred years, Swaffham became one of the most populous parishes in Norfolk and one of the most fashionable centres in the county, attracting many leading West Norfolk Families. A racecourse had been established by 1628, the Assembly Rooms were constructed in 1776-1778, subsequently extended and modernised in 1817, and George Walpole, the Third Earl of Orford (1730-1791), founded a coursing club in 1786. During this period of prosperity, much rebuilding took place around the Market Place and the overall character of the town is primarily of mid- to late Georgian in date, although there is evidence for C16-C17 work behind many façades. Further rebuilding also took place after ‘The Great Fire of Swaffham’, which probably started in the vicinity of the Blue Boar Inn (now the White Hart) on the afternoon of 14 November 1775, when it was set ablaze by a spark from a nearby blacksmith’s workshop. Fire soon engulfed the densely packed houses and workshops behind the inn and along London Road, with 22 buildings being completely destroyed and a further two badly damaged. The town continued to expand in the C19 when its population increased from 2,200 in 1800 to 3,350 in 1845. It also became an important local administrative centre during this period and acquired several notable buildings, including a National School (1838), Shire Hall (1839) and Corn Hall (1858).

63 Market Place was built as a house around 1540 and probably originally had a lobby entry plan. It was converted into a shop in the C19. In the Tithe apportionment of 1840, it is described as a ‘dwelling house and shop’, owned by Amy and Sarah Balders, and occupied by Mary Yarrington. The footprint of the building on the map is not entirely clear but it is set back from the street and appears to have a rectangular plan with small detached outbuildings to the rear. On the Ordnance Survey (OS) maps of 1884, 1905 and 1928 the building is shown to have been extended to the rear on the south end, linking up to the small outbuildings. Since then, the current map shows another rear extension on the north end, which possibly incorporated one of the outbuildings. The building was altered in 1965 when the single-storey shopfront extension was added.

Reasons for Listing

63 Market Place, Swaffham, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* as an early building, probably built around 1540 as a lobby-entry house;
* for its surviving interior features illustrating different phases in the building’s development, including mid-C16 roll-moulded bridging beams and mid-C18 large-framed panelling.

Group value:

* for the strong functional relationship it shares with other nearby buildings that were adapted in the Georgian period to face onto Swaffham’s fashionable Market Place, particularly 53, 55 and 57 Market Place (Grade II-listed, National Heritage List for England (NHLE) entry 1269604) and Cranglegate, 59 Market Place (Grade II-listed, NHLE entry 1269605).

External Links

• Wikidata Q26559668

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

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