Longfrey

TQ 04 NW 431/4/10021 13-DEC-01

ST MARTHA LOCKNER ROAD Chilworth Longfrey

GV II

Terrace of houses for employees at gunpowder works; now one house. c1885. Brick English bond plinth below tile hung walls. Brick ridge stacks. Gabled plain tile roofs with brick ridge stacks.

PLAN: Row of 5 double-depth houses.

EXTERIOR: 2 storeys and attic; 5 gable range. Domestic Revival style. Row of 5 matching gables with wavy bargeboards and pendant finials, entrances set to either side and to the middle of the central house. Doorways now only remain to left-hand house and one from right, which have gabled porches on timber posts with tile-hung tympanae, and plank and batten doors. Fenestration originally 2-light mullion and transom casements with glazing bars in flush frames, paired windows to second and third from left replace former entrances; smaller first-floor windows, that to the centre an oriel on brackets, and mullion attic windows. 2-light right return, left return has a full-height bay window. Rear has single-storey outshuts to W end, and a large central mid-C20 extension with parapet walls; the E house has a rear gable; 2 large stacks with cornices, and a smaller one to E.

INTERIOR: two open fireplaces remain from the original cottages, otherwise features date from 1920s conversion into single dwelling.

HISTORY: Chilworth gunpowder mills operated from the early C17 until it closed in 1920, and it is one of the most important sites for the history of the industry in the country. From 1885 it started producing smokeless powder under the control of a German company, Burbach, who invested in new plant and buildings.

These included accommodation for the German foreman and employees of the company, and the row of houses overlooks the surviving mill (SAM). An unusually elaborate example of industrial housing, also included .

(Wayne Cocroft, Dangerous Energy. The archaeology of gunpowder and military explosives manufacture. Swindon (English Heritage), 2000, p. 97)