46 And 47, Market Place

The building at 46 and 47 Market Place in Chippenham is a commercial property, comprising shops and offices, with origins in a 16th-century inn. It was extensively refaced in the 18th century, with a lower rear wing added during the same period. The front facade is constructed of painted and rendered limestone ashlar, with painted freestone rusticated pilasters, a modillion cornice, and a parapet with balustrades above the windows. A lintel cornice and sillband mark the first floor. The roof is tiled, hipped at the front, and incorporates a brick ridge stack to the rear wing.

The building is three storeys high and features a three-window arrangement. The second floor has 3/6-pane sash windows, while the first floor has 6/6-pane sashes, except for a left-of-centre bay with 6/1 panes. Partial canted bays flank the right side, although the ground-floor sections have been removed to make way for 20th-century shop fronts.

The interior retains a four-bay collar-truss roof with trenched purlins and wind braces, now plastered over. The upper floors span both properties and are contained within No. 46. The 18th-century facade is taller than the original front wall, exposing moulded wall plates and remnants of rafters on the second floor. The thick front wall has been pierced to create the bays. One bay reveals an early 18th-century ovolo-moulded glazing pattern, while another retains traces of a former mullioned window. This room also features stop-chamfered spine beams with run-out stops, thick skirting boards from the 18th century, and a 17th-century eight-panel door. A staircase to the right of the ground floor has a molded cornice and raised-and-fielded panelling. A cupboard on the rear wall houses raised-and-fielded panels with semicircular-arched double doors, glazed at the top. The rear wing contains a dogleg closed-string oak staircase with turned balusters and a straight molded handrail, as well as chamfered beams, a four-light stone-mullioned window, and an open fire.

Historically, the building was part of the White Hart Inn, known as Ye Harte in 1548, and it is documented that Oliver Cromwell and Robert Peel were guests. The inn's prominence declined with the arrival of the railway, and it was sold for private use in 1850.