48, Market Place

CHIPPENHAM

ST9273SW MARKET PLACE 930-1/10/113 (North side) 25/04/50 No.48

GV II

Part of an inn, now offices. C16, refronted early C18. Painted limestone ashlar to the front, timber-framed rear wing with brick nogging, steep-pitched double-Roman tile roof hipped to the front. Narrow 2-unit plan with rear wing making L-plan. EXTERIOR: 4 storeys; 3-window range. A cornice returned to the left, is at the top of the parapet wall. Moulded architraves to the windows; small square C20 windows to the 4th floor, thick glazing bars and crown glass to early C18 6-over-6-pane sash windows of the 2nd and 1st floors, C20 shop to the ground floor. The rear wing is a separate block connected by a passage. The slate roof is hipped to the front, gabled to the timber-framed back. C18 paired 6/6-pane sash windows to the 1st floor are set in an architrave to a former stone-mullioned window. INTERIOR: the room to the 1st floor has a chamfered crossbeam; a box cornice; full-height unpainted raised-and-fielded panelling; ovolo moulded glazing bars, crown glass, panelled reveals and window seats below the windows. To the rear wall is a stone cyma-moulded Tudor-arched fireplace with shields in the spandrels. It is flanked by doors with 2 raised-and-fielded panels, LH-hinges and 4-pane overlights. A cupboard is on the right and the entrance to a passage (which has a C17 panelled door to a cupboard on the right), to the rear wing on the left. To the right of the passage, against the chimney-breast, is a C17 cupboard door with a pierced diamond in the panelling, The 2nd floor of rear wing has a slightly chamfered beam with triangular stops and an open fire with sunk spandrels. The ground floor retains flagstones, now carpeted. HISTORY: the remodelled building was formerly part of the White Hart Inn, known as Ye Harte in 1548 when it probably extended across the sites of Nos 44 to 48 Market Place (qv). Oliver Cromwell and Robert Peel are Known to have stayed here. The importance of the inn declined with the building of the railway and it was sold for private purposes in 1850. One of a group of buildings with fine C18 fronts, including Nos 44, 45, 46 and 47 (qv). (Chamberlain, Joseph A: Chippenham: Chippenham: 1976-: 170; The Buildings of England: Pevsner N & Cherry B: Wiltshire: London: 169).

Listing NGR: ST9214873287