82 High Street

  • 82 High Street, date not known
  • 1986. 82 High Street
  • 2011. 82 High Street
  • 2019. 82 High Street
  • 1972. 82 High Street
  • The stone fireplace
Archive Notes:

An ancient house of which the roof structure appears to be Elizabethan, and the chimneys earlier. The chimney stack is constructed from stone mixed with cob which has been gradually moving to the south (back) as the cob dries out more on that side. Evidence of this movement can be seen in the attic. It is remembered as Mr White's butcher's shop and the bricked-up window can still be seen. White had a slaughterhouse on site, but this and the butcher's shop was closed down during the Second World War. A fine open fireplace was uncovered, see below. There is a large stone barn behind the house. A conservatory was added in the 1990s.

Five views: Undated, 1972, 1986, 2011 and 2019., and the fireplace

There is a copyright report on this house from 2021 which can only be inspected in WVA. However, the owner has agreed that the fireplace can be shown, see below. This stone fireplace on the first floor is suggestive of examples found by Linda Hall (L. Hall, Period House Fixtures and Fittings: 1300-1900, p. 71, (2019, Newbury, 2005), fig. 7.5) in 1445 in Hampshire rather than similar ones from the 16th  and 17th centuries (and also  one, without such fine detail, which was found in Ambrose Farm and dated to the 17th-century). There is no suggestion that the house construction dates back to this era but the fireplace may have come from an older house. But why such a grand example was put out-of-public gaze in a first-floor bedroom is curious. The condition of this fireplace is excellent and the detail almost identical to the Linda Hall find.

 

 

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