39, High Street

MALMESBURY

ST9387 HIGH STREET 758-1/4/156 (West side) 18/01/49 No.39 (Formerly Listed as: HIGH STREET (West side) Nos.37 AND 39)

GV II

Pair of houses, now 1 shop with flats above. 1487 [tree-ring dating]; remodelled C18 and C19. Rendered timber-frame; limestone rubble rear wing. 2-span stone tile roof, formerly with two gables at front, now hipped behind parapet. PLAN:Originally two 1-bay 3-storey double-jettied timber-framed houses; remodelled in the C18 and C19 and a shop formed on the ground floor with an entrance on the right to accommodation above. Later stone rear wing. EXTERIOR: 3 storeys; 2-window range. Symmetrical front has thin pilaster strips and storey bands below the parapet, with a ground-floor arcade of 5 round-headed arches with a central doorway and bracketed cornice and imposts, a right-hand doorway with 6-panel door and plate-glass fanlight, and matching left-hand window. First-floor tripartite windows have segmental-arched central heads in raised frames with cornices, and similar smaller second-floor windows in raised surrounds, with 2-light plate-glass sashes. Roof has 2 hips behind the parapet, possibly formerly a pair of street gables, which extend back to rear gables. Rear elevation has a 2-storey gabled wing projecting back with a 3-light C17 casement mullion window with leaded metal casements. INTERIOR: Exposed timber-framing, including jowled storey-posts, some exposed wall-framing at the sides with wall-plates and one curved brace. Collar and tie-beam roof trusses with chamfered tie-beams, trenched purlins and wind-braces. There is no exposed timber-framing on the ground floor except for a re-set moulded timber in the entrance passage on the right. Restored circa early C18 newel staircase with closed string, square newels, turned balusters and a heavy handrail. A rare example of a late C15 town house. SOURCES: [1] Cotswold Archaeology, report 03070 [2] Miles, W.H. Oxford Dendrochronology Laboratory: The Tree-Ring Dating of Saxon House, 39 High Street, Malmesbury.

Listing NGR: ST9331587073