Priestley'S House

CALNE

ST9970 THE GREEN 755-1/5/157 (South side) 19/05/50 No.19 Priestley's House

GV II*

House. C16; refronting dated 1758. Limestone ashlar, coursed rubble sides, right-hand ashlar gable stack and slate and pantile roof. Double-depth plan with a long rear W wing. 2 storeys, attic and semi-basement; 3-window range. Divided by plinth, plat band, thin cornice and parapet, with roll-moulded coping to front gables, and parallel gabled range behind. Entrance between left-hand windows has a raised surround with pediment, and swept steps and curtail up with a wrought-iron railing to a 6-panel door. Paired mid C18 windows in raised surrounds to slightly recessed 9/6-pane sashes with thick glazing bars. 2 large early C19 hipped 4-light dormers with leaded casements, and a smaller 6-pane dormer between. 3 basement openings have ovolo mullions, of 3 lights to the centre and right, and 4 to the left. A panel above the door inscribed C/F*E/1758. The left-hand gable has a window in a former door; the rear gable has altered C20 mullion and transom ground- and first-floor windows, and a chamfered stone-mullioned attic window. S front has a central Tudor-arched doorway with chamfered reveals, and a long W range, a C17 former malthouse with blocked 2-light mullion windows to semi-basement, later C18 2-light wood-framed windows inserted with segmental-arched lunette window in S gable, and 3 small eaves gables to the attic drying floor. INTERIOR not inspected but reported to include a C16 full-width semi-basement remodelled C17; 4-centre ovolo moulded doorhead re-used with C17 chamfered jambs; 5-centred arched stone lintel to fireplace with moulded head converted for use as oven. Ground and first floors with chamfered oak beam and floor boards. C17 fireplaces; first-floor hob grates. Later C16 moulded wall beam re-used as doorway lintel in malthouse. Rear dormers show ends of extended collar beam trusses. HISTORICAL NOTE: originally a continuous range with No.20 (qv) and the White Hart Hotel (qv), the semi-basement extends beneath all three; divided into 2 houses, and refronted, in mid C18 by the Child family of Heddington. The home of Dr Priestley c1772-9 who in 1774 discovered oxygen while working as librarian for the Earl of Shelbourne at Bowood House.

Listing NGR: ST9996470725