Post Office

SE 7803-7903 EPWORTH HIGH STREET (north side)

20/71 No 66 (Post Office) 10.2.86

GV II

House, now Post Office. Probably C17 origins, with C18 and later brick encasing and infilling, mid-late C19 rebuilt south gable with shop front; late C18 - early C19 addition to rear. Timber framing with mud-and-stud infill (pair of wall posts and mid-rail with small section of original infill visible on west side), largely encased and rebuilt with brick; north extension in brick. Pantile roofs throughout. Plan: 3-room main range, formerly with 4 bays of timber framing and lobby entry to right of centre; room to left now shop. Stands gable-end to street. Single-storey with attic. Street front has shop front with recessed C20 half-glazed door and side light beneath original plain overlight, 3-light window to left with thin transom; both door and window in pilastered surround with plain frieze and ornate carved consoles carrying moulded cornice and hood. Pair of attic windows above: 12-pane sash to right in flush wooden architrave with sill beneath segmental stretcher arch, unsympathetic C20 window to left in similar original opening. Stone and brick-coped curvilinear gable. East front: 2 windows. Blocked original segmental-headed entrance to right of centre. To left, a 4-pane casement beneath segmental arch, inserted C20 door and blocked segmental-headed door. To right, straight joints indicating position of wall post, inserted C20 window beneath timber lintel, inserted C20 door. Pair of full raking dormer windows with C20 six-pane casements and rendered cheeks. Rendered T-plan axial stack. West side has pair of oak wall posts (bottom sections removed) and mid-rail to bay south of chimney, with later 4-pane casement, blocked door and brick infilling below rail, and weatherboarding over mud-and-stud walling above. 12-pane casement to left. Straight joint to right. Exposed wall plate. Single- room, 2-storied north extension, now used as sorting office, has wide inserted door beneath timber lintel, casement to left, 12-pane first-floor sliding sash, dentilled brick eaves cornice, tumbled-in brick to raised gables, corniced end stack to right. Interior of main range has large stack with inglenook fireplace to left beneath arched chamfered bressumer with later C18 - C19 moulded cornice over; chamfered spine beam to right room, boxed-in spine beam to left. Plaster floors to first floor. 4-bay pegged collared rafter roof with arched collars. One of the earliest surviving vernacular buildings in the Isle of Axholme.

Listing NGR: SE7816203891