74 and 76 Westgate Street

This pair of former merchant's houses, now in commercial use, preserves remarkable medieval fabric despite extensive later remodelling. Number 74 dates to the mid-15th century with later alterations and has a 15th-century or earlier cellar. Number 76 contains a late-12th-century undercroft with remains of a 14th-century merchant's house above, altered in the early 16th century. Both buildings were re-fronted and remodelled around 1900, with further alterations including new shopfronts in the 20th and 21st centuries.

Materials and Construction

The late-12th-century undercroft to number 76 is built of stone, with timber-framed structures above. The roofs are slate, except for corrugated sheet to the rear of number 76. The later front elevation is red brick.

Plan

The buildings share a front east-west range dating from around 1900, with earlier cross (north-south) ranges to the rear. The undercroft below number 76 extends further north than the cellar below number 74 but is now inaccessible.

Exterior

The buildings present a unified three-storey front elevation, though behind this facade both are three storeys with undercrofts, and the rear wing of number 76 is two storeys with an attic and undercroft. The front elevation is red brick with yellow-brick detailing, four identical bays wide, defined by shallow recesses separated by narrow yellow-brick pilasters supporting cambered arches with dentil moulding. At the top is a brick cornice and a panelled parapet with yellow-brick dentils below the coping.

The ground floor has early-21st-century timber shopfronts. The first floor has four timber sash windows with sidelights and vertical glazing bars, and the second floor has similar sashes with sidelights. All windows sit in segmental arched heads with voussoir bricks set in alternating yellow and black colours. The side elevations adjoin neighbouring buildings, and the rear elevations are largely obscured by later construction to the north.

Interior

Although now presenting as one building behind the unified brick facade, the interior retains distinct elements from both properties.

Number 74

Above ground, the interior has been altered for commercial use and no historic fabric is visible. At the centre-left of the ground floor is a floor hatch giving access to the undercroft and cellar below.

The cellar has rubble-stone walls and is now connected to the undercroft below number 76. It measures approximately 7.8 metres north-south by around 5 metres wide. The southern wall sits on the line of Westgate Street and contains a blocked opening which may have led onto the street. In the south-east corner is a small stone buttress. In the north-east corner is a splayed recess with a curved back, possibly for a small staircase, suggesting access from the ground floor above. The eastern wall has two blocked openings, possibly originally for storage. On the north wall to the left is a stone recess reminiscent of a chimney flue, though such heating was uncommon in undercrofts and cellars. In the south-east corner is a large capstone slab, possibly covering a well. In the centre are two 20th-century brick piers and the floor above has been reinforced with steel joists. The floor is laid with bricks.

Number 76

No historic fabric is visible on the ground floor. On the first floor, early-16th-century ceiling beams associated with the floor inserted into the former hall wing intersect and have deep ovolo mouldings. An early-19th-century panelled door leads from the 1900 bay at the front to the 'attic' of the former 14th-century hall wing at the rear.

This attic comprises a three-bay timber roof structure. At the south end is the timber-framed former south gable of the hall with three vertical struts between the tie beam and collar, and an arch cut into the western end to accommodate the current access door. In the centre, a cambered tie beam and jowled bay post set into the west wall have mortices, perhaps for curved braces to form a trefoil arch beneath the beam. From the centre-top of the tie beam, angled struts connect to the principal rafters; the soffits of the struts and rafters are cut to form an open quatrefoil with ogee curves. The northern truss is modern with a tie beam. The north gable is brick and probably dates to the early 20th century. The underside of the roof was lined below the corrugated-sheet roof in the 20th century.

The Late-12th-Century Undercroft

Below the rear wing of number 76 (beneath the former great hall) and aligned north-south is a fully subterranean late-12th-century vaulted stone undercroft measuring approximately 4.5 metres wide by 15 metres long, and approximately 2 metres high to the apex of its barrel vault. The undercroft was originally divided into four bays by transverse rib vaulting.

The two northernmost ribs survive intact, with broad chamfers and triangular or diagonal-cut stops, some stepped and some ornamented with a roll. On the west side, the ribs spring from engaged, rectangular, chamfered pilasters. On the east side, the ribs spring from corbels projecting from the wall line with no pilaster. The corbels consist of a rectangular chamfered impost supported by a scalloped capital, beneath which is roll moulding, a small colonnette, more roll moulding, and then the colonnette dies away in the wall well above ground. The third rib from the north remains partially in situ and springs from a scalloped capital. A surviving corbel is the only part remaining from the fourth rib from the north.

The shafts and the wall on the west side lean outwards, which could be an attempt to brace a lean once it had occurred, hence why there are no pilasters on the vertically true eastern wall. In the south-western corner, next to an altered brick-stepped opening onto the street, are the remains of a sloping stone plinth against the western wall; this may have supported a direct entrance onto Westgate Street.

In the north wall of the undercroft, at its west end, is a 12th-century round-arched doorway with a dressed stone rebate, now blocked. The doorway reveals are deep and faced in coursed, dressed stone extending to the arched door head, which is comprised of side-stacked stones. This doorway was open in September 1972, when photographs were taken looking through to a further subterranean space to the north, possibly a medieval cellar built on a courtyard which may have been the main entrance to the undercroft.

To the east of the round-arched doorway is a blocked rectangular opening with dressed-stone reveals; it is splayed on one side and has a low sill and timber lintel which cuts across a moulded and chamfered stone jamb to the left. In 1972, this central opening was open, along with the doorway to the west. To the east again is a further opening, with a sloping stone sill, splayed jambs, flat stone lintel, and dressed-stone reveals. All these surviving openings are concentrated in the northern wall, suggesting that light and access were needed, or could only be achieved, from that direction.

Along the line of the third rib from the north is an 18th- or 19th-century brick partition with a doorway and window (now blocked). There is a further brick arcade south of the partition, built against the east wall of the undercroft, and a brick wall built against the south wall creating a deep recess, now blocked. To the west of this, nine brick steps descend from Westgate Street into the undercroft; they are post-medieval. Various other later brick and stone insertions appear throughout the undercroft. A thorough description and analysis of the undercroft below number 76 and cellar below number 74 can be read in Lloyd and Lane (see Sources).