The Old Shop

THE OLD SHOP

A house, now shop and café, on the north-east side of High Street in Whitchurch. Dating from the late 15th century with late 16th or early 17th-century additions, the building is timber-framed with plastered infill and a rendered plinth, topped with a plain tile roof.

The structure is L-shaped, comprising a hall range of approximately 1600 containing two framed bays to the right, and a late 15th-century cross wing of three framed bays to the left, flush with the front elevation. The timber framing features closely-spaced studs with S-braces, while the gable displays diagonal strutting with a central lozenge. The building rises to two storeys, with an attic contained within the cross wing.

The cross wing's first floor is jettied and decorated with a moulded bressumer, shaped end brackets, and the remains of shafting below with moulded capitals. The soffit bears carved interlaced trefoil ornament. The jettied gable carries a carved quatrefoil ornament on the face of a cambered tie-beam, with wooden coving beneath featuring carved interlaced trefoil ornament and carved end brackets. A small leaded casement occupies the attic to the left. Two first-floor three-light wooden casements of 20th-century date sit above. At ground level to the left are a pair of small-paned windows flanking a small-parted glazed door with a 4-part rectangular overlight. A Salop fire insurance plate (No. 5704) is fixed to the right of the first-floor right-hand window.

To the right stands an elaborate and complete late 19th-century wooden shop-front comprising two plate-glass windows with circular corner shafts and pierced spandrels, top lights with stained glass including rural scenes, a recessed central pair of glazed doors with billet-type ornament and rounded tops to the lights, and a carved scrolled pediment. A deep glass fascia of painted glass over carved wood displays the name "WALKER" flanked by the street number.

The interior retains significant medieval fabric. The right-hand ground-floor room features a deep-chamfered cross-beamed ceiling with decorative carved stops and chamfered joists with run-out stops. The left-hand ground-floor room contains a pair of ceiling beams, one with deep chamfer and one with small chamfer and ogee stops, accompanied by plain and chamfered joists. A stud partition wall divides the ground-floor rooms, with its infill now removed.

The first floor of the cross wing was formerly a two-bay solar open to the roof, incorporating a central truss with arched bracing and a cambered tie-beam with the remains of a carved boss, and chamfered wind braces to the north-west. A rear bay was probably added in the 17th century. The hall range contains collar and tie-beam trusses with queen struts.

The attic contains a series of coops, probably formerly used for rearing and keeping birds for cock fighting (not inspected at the time of survey in November 1986).

The building underwent significant changes over its history. One explanation of the current plan suggests the present hall range replaced a former open hall at the same time the cross wing was extended to the rear. Old photographs document a late 18th or early 19th-century shop-front to No. 21, a porter-rest in front of No. 23, leaded windows, a gabled dormer, and a stack to the right. The present shop-front to No. 21 is a particularly fine and complete example of its type. Nineteenth-century additions exist in the angle at the rear.