Middle Tap

This list entry was subject to a Minor Enhancement on 20 July 2022 to amend the description and to reformat the text to current standards

NY 0336 1/100

MARYPORT SENHOUSE STREET (north side), Middle Tap

(Formerly listed as Board Vaults Public House)

GV II Maryport is a mid-C18 Cumbrian town and port, succeeding a small settlement and harbour known as Ellenfoot (Alnfoot), established on a planned grid pattern by Humphrey Senhouse (1731-1814) to serve the local coal mining and iron industry and function as a minor shipping point. The town officially became known as Maryport in 1756 after Humphrey Senhouse’s wife, although it had unofficially been referred to as such since the 1750s. During the C19 the town and port expanded to serve the local iron and steel industries as the town’s shipbuilding industry developed, and by the mid-C19 coal exporting had declined and the railway was introduced. The port and town remained important on the west Cumberland coast, but declined with the cessation of major industrial activity from the late 1920s. Maryport has been known as a destination for sea-bathing since the late C18.

Senhouse Street, running from Curzon Street to the harbour, retains its historic layout of diverse and varied C18 and C19 buildings. Its north-west end is known as Shipping Brow and forms the earliest part of the mid-C18 grid pattern. It is labelled as the town’s earliest marketplace, known as Old Market Brow, in a map of around 1756, and as a consequence is wider than other streets in the town with continuous rows of houses north and south (now with a handful of buildings removed). By the early C19 it was no longer the official marketplace, but remained a prominent residential and commercial area, with those involved in the town’s principal industries residing there. This early-C19 building, number 16, was one of six public houses and inns on Senhouse Street in the mid-C19 and was known as the Spirit Vaults. Between 1862 and 1880 it was run by William Wilson and Company, before James Dickinson took over the premises and it was then known as the Board Vaults.

Early-C19 rendered four-storey building with modillion and moulded eaves cornice. The ground floor has two shop windows consisting of one oriel to left (west) and two doors either side of another shop window, all beneath a continuous moulded cornice. The basement has a doorway and the upper floors have two windows, with moulded surrounds and glazing bars.

Listing NGR: NY0345836564