49, 50 And 50A, Commercial Street

HEREFORD

SO5140SW COMMERCIAL STREET 683-1/8/143 (South East side) 10/08/89 Nos.49, 50 AND 50A

GV II

Shops and dwellings, now shops. Early C15, C17, early/mid C18, C19. Painted brick and timber-framed; hipped Welsh slate roof; brick stack with C20 cap, to rear. Early/mid C18 brick block parallel to street with 2 projecting rear wings, that to No.49 is probably early C18 and contemporary with the front, that to No.50A is early C15 and C17. EXTERIOR: 3 storeys and cellar; 6-window range: mid C19 margin-glazed sashes in broad, beaded cases under segmental arches; storeyband; 2/2 sashes over. Three C20 shop fronts. Left returned side (to Union Passage): C18 nine-pane light with broad glazing bars, in rear wing; brick stack. INTERIOR: late C18 winder stair with turned balusters and damaged newel, to 2nd floor. 2nd floor: C19 corner fireplace; two 2-panel doors with L-hinges; plank door; moulded ridge purlin to rear. 1st floor: C19 corner fireplace to rear; three 2-panel doors; late C19 six-panel door; 2 panelled wall cupboards; C19 corner fireplaces, one tiled and painted; panelled reveals. Cellar: jowelled post re-used as prop. No.50A: C18 open-well staircase with turned balusters fron 1st to 2nd floor. 2nd floor: C19 corner fireplace and pair of wall cupboards; two 2-panel doors. 1st floor: 2- and 6-panel doors; panelled reveals; late C19 fireplace (corner). Cellar: stone-lined. Rear wing: surviving remains of an early C15 hall of high quality. The damaged framing is not fully revealed. Probable dais end with panelled wall with 2 trefoil-headed panels, plaster with remains of painted text above. Brattished wall plate right round. 3-bay roof with arch-braced collars, stop-chamfered purlins, 3 tiers of cusped windbraces. The main trusses have cusped queen struts and principals and moulded soffits to the collars. Smoke blackening to all the original timbers indicating its origins as an open hall. The hall is not its original width being cut back by approx 1m and with a later partition. One truss survives to full width. Beyond the hall is a later structure with a C17 principal rafter roof with queen posts and wind-bracing. Rafters are halved and pegged at apex. The wing has been truncated by at least one bay in C19 as indicated by the remains of the purlins. A rare but damaged survival of a richly decorated high status C15 hall.

Listing NGR: SO5117640083