True'S Yard

KINGS LYNN

610-1/0/10019 NORTH STREET 05-JUN-09 5 & 6 True's Yard

II A two storey pair of former fishermen's cottages, of C18, with C19 fenestration, restored in the late C20.

MATERIALS Constructed of brick laid in English bond, over-painted at the façade, with pantile-covered gable roof, brick kneelers and copings to the gable-ends, a central coping and ridge stack.

PLAN One room plan.

EXTERIOR The façade has corbelling to each corner and two timber-battened entrance doors with flat hoods and simply carved brackets. Each cottage has one, flush six-over-six sash window with horns at ground floor and one six-light casement at first floor. There are no windows to the side elevations or rear. The rear brick wall rests on a substantial fragment of coursed stone walling which may be from an earlier building or structure.

INTERIOR Although there have been some repairs to joinery and replacement fireplaces, most of the simple fixtures and fittings remain, such as timber battened doors and their door furniture, built-in cupboards and pamment flooring on the ground floor of the left-hand cottage, which also retains its C19 stove. The interior plan-form of both cottages remains intact and comprises one room at ground and first floors with a narrow winder stair to the rear of the stack. SOURCES Karen Noel-Storr 'The buildings and past occupants of True's Yard fishing museum complex, King's Lynn, Norfolk'. Report supporting HLF bid, 2008.

HISTORY True's Yard is the only surviving relic of the traditional settlement form in the North End of King's Lynn, a physical reminder of the harsh lives of the proud fisher folk on whose efforts much of the wealth of the ancient port was based. A conveyance of 1818 itemises the sale of the yard, including six cottages, to William True from Sir Thomas Towler for the sum of £295. Numbers 5 and 6 North Street are the two remaining cottages, the other four being demolished as part of slum clearance in the 1930s, and were uninhabited by the 1960s. The buildings were restored back to their C18 and C19 form in 1989, attested by a historic photograph showing the cottages as presented today.

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION DECISION Numbers 5 and 6 North Street, True's Yard, are designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons. * True's Yard now constitutes a rare survival of a characteristic working class complex of dwellings * They retain a significant proportion of C18 historic fabric. * They have surviving fixtures and fittings of the C18 and C19. * The interior plan-form of the cottages survives. * This yard lay-out is characteristic of King's Lynn's urban development and has links with the important fishing industry of the port * Group Value with other adjoining buildings