82 and 84 St Mary's Street

This is a 16th-century continuous jettied building with evidence of successive phases of development from the 16th to 20th centuries. A 19th-century cross wing and extensions lie to the rear.

The building is principally timber-framed. The lower storey of the St Mary's Street frontage has a brick front wall, and there is a brick cross wing to the north. The roof is laid with clay plain tiles on the frontal pitch of the main range and corrugated cement sheet to the rear pitch and the cross wing. The building has an L-shaped plan with the 16th-century front range to St Mary's Street and 19th-century cross wing and extensions to the rear.

Exterior

The principal frontage to St Mary's Street is of three bays and two storeys, forming a continuous 16th-century jettied structure within a terrace of buildings at the junction with West End. All external evidence for the earliest phase of the building is currently (2016) obscured by an affixed board frontage at first-floor level, which has mock timber framing painted on. Three windows are positioned off-set to the right side of the façade; the first two being 18th-century 8-over-8 sash windows and the last, at the far right, being a 20th-century casement type. At ground-floor level the front wall was rebuilt in brick in the 18th century to create a fashionable straight façade although here the jetty was retained. At street level there is a part-glazed 19th-century door at the far left side of the façade with a further 18th-century 8-over-8 sash window positioned adjacent. On the right-hand side of the frontage there is a pair of 20th-century glazing-bar shop windows flanking a matching 19th-century door.

The rear portion of the St Mary's Street range has a roofline which sweeps down to the ground floor level. At the north-east side of the main range is a cross wing dating from the first half of the 19th century, this hipped with the roof pitch of the main range, although slightly lower in height. Along the northern side of the 16th-century range is a later 19th-century single-storey projection which appears to be contemporary with the single-storey pitched extension to the cross wing, probably late 19th century. All of the windows and doors in this rear portion of the building are later 20th-century replacements and there is no extant evidence of fabric from the earliest phases of construction visible in this portion of the building.

Interior

At ground-floor level of the main St Mary's Street range the majority of early partitions have been removed to create a large undivided space. The principal surviving evidence for the first 16th-century phase is in the form of the ceiling, in which the two and a half bays of the original building are defined by three cross rails, all with the same stepped chamfered stops. The western cross rail is largely obscured by the later stair inserted into the narrow western bay, this being distinct from the rest of the ground floor and accessed via the separate west entrance door. The eastern two cross rails have more visible evidence remaining. The central one is chamfered and stopped for the position of the spine beams in the bays to either side. Towards its northern end there is a redundant mortice for an original post, almost certainly indicating the position of an internal doorway between the two original full bays. This suggests that the two bays were originally partitioned, although currently the studding is a 20th-century addition possibly incorporating early timbers from elsewhere in the building. The doorway appears to have sat against the north wall of the building, with the other jamb presumably originally formed by the principal post, although this has been removed and 20th-century posts and bracing now provide additional structural support in this opened-out space.

The third cross rail (that furthest east) is chamfered on its western side and stopped for the spine beam, but not chamfered on its eastern side. This lack of chamfer is one piece of evidence for the slightly later 16th-century date of the eastern bay. On the underside of the beam is a large residual groove probably allowing for a plank partition. The groove terminates adjacent to a redundant mortice on the underside of the beam, and the chamfer on the western side stops adjacent to the same feature. This is in line with the redundant mortice on the cross rail immediately to the west, and probably represents another original door position, although this door would have been an external rather than internal feature (at least prior to the later 16th-century single-bay extension to the east). The two spine beams between the original cross rails are both chamfered but the one in the eastern bay is more elaborately moulded than those further west; this featuring ogee and hollow roll moulding which terminates at the western end in run-out stops. This distinction in the treatment of the spine beam moulding offers further evidence of a separate phase of construction of this eastern bay. Any additional evidence for the gable end of this bay has been lost through the truncation of the eastern wall.

During the 18th century the front wall at ground floor was replaced with later brickwork, although part of the mid-rail in the second bay survives. This has a recess centrally placed within the bay, indicating the position of shutters for an original window opening. The retention of this portion of the mid-rail demonstrates the position of the original front wall St Mary's Street frontage and shows that the 18th-century brick reconstruction broadly followed the same line as the 16th-century one it replaced.

At first-floor level of the main St Mary's Street range, the extant evidence suggests the original building comprised a two-bay, single-room plan, with a smoke bay at the western end (now occupied by the enclosed staircase). The bays can still be read in the set of surviving jowled posts and the tie beams in this part of the building. Beginning at the western side, the first truss (that of the end wall) is concealed by later plasterwork, but the posts and tie beam of the truss between the narrow western bay and the first full bay survive intact. The tie beam here has residual peg positions for a closed partition below the tie beam indicating that the narrow bay (the present staircase) was subdivided from the rest of the building. At its northern end, where it is now open for the doorway for the stairwell, a residual mortice position is also visible (possibly for a rising brace). Set into the north wall, just to the east of the second tie beam, there is a pair of mullions set diamond-wise in the frame which would have formed an original three-light window. Above the tie beam here the original studding appears to indicate that the bay was also closed at this level. There is no surviving evidence for any fireplace position at upper level within this wall.

Of the third truss from the west it is only the jowled posts and tie beam which survive. These are chamfered on both sides, indicating that it has always formed an intermediate truss. Curved braces rise from the posts to the tie beam. These are not chamfered, but their presence suggests that the truss was originally open, allowing for a large undivided, two-bay space at first-floor level. Above the tie beam the original timbers do not survive, although there is no evidence for former partitioning on this alignment. The fourth truss appears to have always formed a further closed truss – originally acting as the eastern end of the building. The eastern side of the truss (seen from the separate later 16th-century bay) is concealed by applied timbers, but to the west some parts of the original tie beam and jowled posts remain visible. The tie beam is slightly cambered and has a series of pegs on its lower edge indicating the position of studding for a closed partition. The extant studding closing this bay may represent this original partition, although this cannot be identified with any certainty.

Other evidence of the earliest 16th-century phase which remains visible at first-floor level is the front (south) wall plate. This is chamfered and stopped where it meets the trusses, with a simple straight stop. Towards the eastern end, close to the fourth truss there is an edge halved and bridled scarf joint. The principal feature of the wall plate is that in both of the two full bays it has a recess cut into its lower edge, indicating the position of window shutters, and the position of windows in each bay in addition to the window set into the north wall. The window position in the western full bay is set slightly west of centre, that in the eastern bay is positioned slightly to the east of centre.

In the later 16th-century eastern bay of the upper floor, which is entirely closed off from the western side of the range, the front (south) wall plate survives intact. That to the rear has been removed to accommodate the addition of the 19th-century rear wing. A rebate cut into the lower edge of the wall plate indicates the position of shutters for a large window opening, centrally placed in the bay. The eastern truss has two jowled posts rising in the corners. The jowls only extend against the eastern half of the post, with the western section of the post rising straight up, presumably because it forms the corner of the building. The tie beam is straight, with the studwork of the eastern elevation visible below, this pegged into the tie beam at their upper edges. Above the tie beam three studs for a closed truss are visible in the centre, these being pegged to the tie beam. The remainder of the truss here is concealed.

Above the tie beams in the 16th-century St Mary's Street range of the building (including the later 16th-century eastern bay) the roof structure has seen much alteration. The changes here, thought to be principally undertaken in the 17th century, saw the removal of many of the original roof timbers above tie beam level along with any earlier ceiling which may have existed. The original roof structure was replaced with a disparate set of timbers, most of them reused, which now provide raking struts to support the purlins in the intermediate open truss. Reused timbers, including a large section of what appears to be an original wall plate, were also used to form spine beams in the bays at first-floor level. It is probable that this formed part of a ceiling in process, whereby the first floor was closed at tie beam level, a development typical of the 17th century.

The rear wing, which is an addition of the 19th century (pre-1843 on the basis of map evidence), retains no original visible structural members or fittings at either ground- or first-floor level, therefore making it difficult to ascribe a more precise date with any certainty. The single-storey pitched extension to the cross wing along with the extension along the north side of the main range are probably later additions of the 19th century, though again no internal features of this date appear to survive in either of these areas to date these more accurately.