Former Angel Inn

A former house and inn of probable 16th-century date incorporating some earlier fabric and a 17th-century range, with commercial adaptations of the 18th and 19th centuries including for use as an inn (notably by TH Allen in 1886) and a drapery, and now in mixed commercial use.

The building is timber-framed, retaining some wattle-and-daub nogging, with brick extensions (some rendered) and decorative plaster and terracotta facades, slate roofs, and timber windows.

In plan, a front range is aligned approximately north-south, with east-west rear extensions to the northern two units, which are spanned by a shared western range. Number 20 (south end) is roughly trapezoid and stands partially to the rear of its neighbour to the south (which is not included).

Exterior

The building faces east onto the marketplace, terminating the westward view along 'the alley', on the south side of the covered market hall, and opposite the former Bank of Stockport.

The east wall is of two elements. To the left the Angel Inn is of three bays and two storeys plus a blind attic, with a modern shopfront to the ground floor. Above the shopfront it is plastered, with a first-floor string band and cornice, and moulded parapet with blocked cornice. The first floor is rusticated, with shouldered and eared architraves to the three windows (narrower in the centre), all with winged angel keystones. Above the left window in relief are the words ANGEL INN, flanked by garlanded vases. Further garlands span the two bays to the right, terminating with another garlanded vase. A frieze of spirals and triglyphs spans above. The blind attic storey has cruciform panels with raised borders and bosses in the angles, all spanned by a dentil cornice, with a bossed frieze above, below the parapet cornice.

The right-hand third of the facade is of three narrow bays, and is of three storeys with a modern shopfront to the ground floor. Above the shopfront it is in hard red brick and terracotta, with pilasters flanking and dividing the narrow outer bays from the centre, decorative panels between the floors, and a balustraded parapet with central semi-circular arch. The central pilasters are decorated with reliefs of plants and flowers. The inter-floor panels have further reliefs, including a central monogram R/RH (for RH Rostron). The three-light central windows have mullions and narrower outer lights. All four pilasters have wide moulded cornice capitals. The balustrade has urns at either end and over the arch keystone, and the tympanum of the arch has further decoration in relief.

The building is partially abutted to the south by number 19, and number 20's exposed south facade is largely blind with some small inserted modern windows. The rendered rear of number 20 is of two bays of two storeys, gabled to the right bay which also has a canted bay window to the ground floor. Returning to the left is the south facade of number 21, which is also rendered and of two storeys. At the east end this is of two bays under an eaves gutter; in the left-hand of these bays is a small porch to the basement entrance. At the west end number 21's south facade is taller and semi-gabled with a half hip, and two windows per floor. Above the first-floor windows is a quatrefoil window with circular central light.

The west facade of numbers 21 and 22 rises above the listed town walls, and is clad in glazed white tiles, with three large windows to each floor.

The building is abutted to the north by the market produce hall, but at the east end there is a narrow triangular area between the produce hall and the north facade of the eastern range of number 22. This facade is gabled and at the second floor retains a small-paned sash window, which is blocked internally. The area has a modern flat roof below this window.

Number 22 has a flat-roofed central area at the first floor which is overlooked from the east and north ranges (this is the former lightwell to the basement). All of the walls surrounding this area are of brick. The blind south wall (the north wall of number 21) is cranked southwards at the east end, and at the west end is the projecting lift shaft, with a monopitch roof falling back to number 21. The low west wall is blind and angled, with a sloping eaves to the roof of the western range. The north wall has inserted windows, except in a shallow recess at its east end, where the second-floor window has a stone sill and segmental arch (with a modern casement). The first-floor window here is an inserted late-19th-century sash. This north wall has a phase break with the east wall (the western wall of the east range). This east wall has stacked windows with stone sills and rubbed-brick flat arches. The second-floor window opening has been narrowed.

Interior

The ground floors of numbers 20 and 21 are shared and now form the Angel Inn bar, accessed by a doorway in what was number 21. Most fixtures and finishes are relatively modern. However number 20 retains, at the rear, two hewn ceiling beams which are probably in situ. The easternmost of these two supports the foot of a timber post which forms part of the mid-17th-century first-floor structure. Number 21 retains a hewn eastern beam at ground-floor which is probably also in situ, and stop-chamfered. The ground floor of number 22 is also (in 2025) a bar and contains largely modern finishes but does retain some historic features including a five-panelled door accessing the stairs to the first floor, and some late-19th-century cast-iron columns supporting the first floor.

The interior of the upper floors were stripped to brick at the time of inspection. To the first floor all three properties are interlinked. The first floor of number 20 retains substantial timber framing. In the south wall of the front range this is probably of early-16th-century date with substantial braces and retains some early nogging, probably of strawed plaster over wattle-and-daub. The north wall of the south bay has similar framing (with no surviving nogging), whose eastern post has a likely felling date between 1517 and 1542. The front wall of this bay retains the second-floor former window opening in the ceiling void above the first floor, and an early purlin is retained towards the rear of this bay. The rear south bay dates from around 1661 (one stud in the north wall of this bay was felled in the winter of 1660-1661) but includes some earlier timbers, and retains structural posts and some rails, as well as a remarkable suite of medieval floor-and-ceiling boards. The front wall of the north bay of number 20 retains a large-section structural timber at floor level, of probable late-18th-century date, as well as a reused timber above the first-floor window.

The front range of number 21 retains the blocked former second-floor window in the front wall of the ceiling void, and ceiling timbers of probable late-18th-century date. The front wall also retains a similar large-section structural timber to that in number 20's north bay. The party wall with number 20 (south of the stairs) is built around a retained roof truss of probable 16th-century date, which still carries the sawn-off section of an entrenched middle purlin, and retains its tie-beam and collar, although the tie beam is cut to the rear of the ridge by a doorway. The rear portion of the tie-beam is supported by an arched brace, with brick nogging above and below it. Timber framing also survives below the tie-beam. The rear range of number 21 has a first-floor roof with some late-19th-century trusses but hewn purlins, and an eastern king-post truss of hewn timbers which is probably in situ. To the east of this, over the stair to the second floor, is the framework of a half-domed ceiling, of possible early-19th-century date. At the west end of the first floor is a doorway accessing the late-19th-century rear range spanning numbers 21 and 22, which has no specific features of interest. There are also no historic features elsewhere on the first floor of number 22.

The second floor of number 21 is largely a modern extension. The reused purlins in the eastern half of number 22 have probable felling dates between 1594 and 1614, while the reused purlins in number 22's northern rear range are likely to date from 1520 to 1545, and the rest of this roof dates from 1758 to 1782. The eastern range retains witness marks of a three-flue chimney breast at the west end of the north wall, and a blocked opening that externally retains a sash window.

There are extensive cellars beneath numbers 21 and 22, which to the front are mostly stone-flagged and retain brick-and-stone steps with vestiges of an early access at the top of the flight, and a chimney breast with arched recess, as well as a 19th-century barrel drop. Number 21's rear cellar (accessed from the Angel Inn's rear yard) has vaulted niches in its east wall, and an access northwards into number 22. Number 22's cellar includes the former lightwell yard which retains a blocked segmental-arched window in its north wall. The basement of the north range of number 22 retains a wide segmental-arched opening in its north wall, which is blocked by the south basement wall of the market produce hall. The basement of the east range has brick steps with stone treads, rising eastwards into the triangular area between number 22 and the produce hall, with blocked doorways into the ground floor.

Pursuant to section 1 (5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 it is declared that the modern shopfronts to numbers 20, 21 and 22 Market Place are not of special architectural or historic interest. However, any works which have the potential to affect the character of the listed building as a building of special architectural or historic interest may still require listed building consent and this is a matter for the local planning authority to determine.