Biggleswade House

BROMYARD

815/1/173 CHURCH STREET 12-APR-73 BROMYARD 23 Biggleswade House (Formerly listed as: CHURCH STREET BROMYARD 19)

GV II A house in a row, dating from the C17, with later alterations.

MATERIALS: timber-framed, with roughcast render to the main elevation, and brick end stacks.

PLAN: the building is a simple rectangle on plan, a single-depth range with outshut to the rear.

EXTERIOR: the main elevation is of two storeys and two bays, a timber-framed range set on a stone plinth, rendered above the plinth. The central entrance doorway is flanked by C20 timber casement windows; the first floor has two similar but smaller windows. There is a single roof light to the right of centre, set into the slate roof, which is quite steeply pitched. The brick end stacks have projecting courses towards their tops, which have terra cotta chimney pots.

INTERIOR: not inspected.

HISTORY: Bromyard is a small market town that was first recorded in circa 840. Biggleswade House, 23 Church Street is situated on one of the principal thoroughfares in the town, adjoining the church with the market square. It continues south into Sherford Street, and together they were known as Verterus Vicus in the late C13 and recorded as Shurford Streate in 1575. This central area of the town to the south of the church and around the market place appears to have been fully built up by the early C17, though some of the plots have been re-developed since that time.

Biggleswade House, 23 Church Street is dates originally from the C17. It has undergone some later alterations to the main elevation, including the replacement of the windows, and the rendering of the timber frame.

SOURCES: Dalwood H and Bryant V, An Archaeological Assessment of Bromyard - The Central Marches Historic Towns Survey 1992-6 (2005) James D, Insight Historic Buildings Research, An Analysis of the Historic Fabric of Fifty Buildings in the Central Area of Bromyard, Herefordshire (2009)

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: Biggleswade House, 23 Church Street, is designated at Grade II, for the following principal reasons: * Architectural interest: as a timber-framed building of the C17 * Group value: with the numerous other listed buildings in Church Street