66, High Street

SU 3645 NW ANDOVER HIGH STREET 4/92 (east side) No 66

II Shop and house, now wholly shop. C15, altered C18 and C20. Timber frame with brick cladding and tiled roof. Originally commercial premises to street with probably a solar over, behind this an open hall with service rooms beyond. The timber frame was encased in brick in the C18 and the building refronted as a shop in the C20. Exterior: Two storeys. High Street elevation has a modern plate glass ground floor with an early C20 4-light mullion and transom timber display window above framed by reeded pilasters and cornice. Roofed in line with street and continuous with adjoining property across Black Swan Yard. Elevation to yard has lower roof line. Painted brick with toothed cornice. 2 sash windows to each floor. Curved frontage is due to concealed timber frame. Modern stretcher bond gable wall. Roofed at right-angles to High Street. Interior: Medieval timber frame apparently largely complete, but concealed on the ground floor although there are indications in the right places. Probably originally jettied to the street, now underbuilt. On the first floor the framing of a 2 bay open hall is revealed. Arched braced central tie-beam with a moulded soffit. Gunstock jowl to main posts. Evidence of patching and lighter infill framing of later date. The framing dies away behind the hall but the roof shows the full extent. The hall bays are separated by closed plastered trusses, and these and the surviving original roof timbers are heavily soot stained. Common rafter roof with couples halved and pegged at apex. Plain crown posts above main ties support collars. The roof is confused by considerable later piecing in and modern reconstruction. A single ancient beam survives in the cellar under the front shop. A rare and surprisingly complete survival in the historic core of Andover. Any alterations to the ground floor should be undertaken with extreme care.

Listing NGR: SU3651145634