46 And 47, Market Place

CHIPPENHAM

ST9273SW MARKET PLACE 930-1/10/112 (North side) 25/04/50 Nos.46 AND 47

GV II

Part of an inn, now a shop and offices. C16, refronted early C18 with C18 lower rear wing. Painted and rendered limestone ashlar, painted freestone chamfered rusticated pilasters, modillion cornice and parapet balustraded above the windows, lintel cornice and sillband to the 1st floor; double-Roman tile roof hipped to the front, rough ashlar, double-Roman tile and slate roofs with a brick ridge stack to the rear wing. PLAN: 2-unit with rear right wing in 2 stages. EXTERIOR: 3 storeys; 3-window range. 3/6-pane sash windows to the 2nd floor, 6/6-pane sashes to the 1st floor except to the left-of-centre bay which has 6/1 panes. The ranges to the right are full-height canted bays, the ground-floor parts are now removed to make flush C20 shop fronts. INTERIOR: the 4-bay collar-truss roof has trenched purlins and wind braces (now plastered over). The upper floors extend across both properties and are part of No.46. The C18 facade is higher than the former wall; moulded wall plates with the lower parts of the rafters are exposed on the 2nd floor. The thick front wall has been pierced to form the bays which have irregular reveals, that to the 1st-floor right has a moulded architrave, panelled reveals and early C18 ovolo-moulded glazing bars, the bay window to the left has the top of the original opening to a mullioned window. This room has 4 ogee-stopped beams, some early C18 thick skirting boards, and a C17 8-panel door. The stairs from the ground floor, to the right, have a moulded cornice and raised-and-fielded panelling below a swept dado rail. At the top of the stairs, against the rear wall, is a cupboard with raised-and-fielded panels above semicircular-arched double doors, glazed to the top. To the centre of the C18 rear right wing is a dogleg closed-string oak staircase with turned balusters and a straight moulded handrail. The rear wing has chamfered beams, a 4-light stone-mullioned window and an open fire to the rear. 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 coming of the railway and it was sold for private use in 1850. (Chamberlain, Joseph A: Chippenham: Chippenham: 1976-: 132; The Buildings of England: Pevsner N & Cherry B: Wiltshire: London: 1967-1975: 170).

Listing NGR: ST9216073281