An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in the City of Cambridge. Originally published by Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London, 1959.
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'Secular Buildings: Houses, 251-338', in An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in the City of Cambridge( London, 1959), British History Online https://prod.british-history.ac.uk/rchme/cambs/pp358-391 [accessed 27 December 2024].
'Secular Buildings: Houses, 251-338', in An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in the City of Cambridge( London, 1959), British History Online, accessed December 27, 2024, https://prod.british-history.ac.uk/rchme/cambs/pp358-391.
"Secular Buildings: Houses, 251-338". An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in the City of Cambridge. (London, 1959), , British History Online. Web. 27 December 2024. https://prod.british-history.ac.uk/rchme/cambs/pp358-391.
Houses, 251-338
(251) Downing Terrace (Plate 298), 13 houses, extending some 85 yds. W. from Panton Street, is generally of two storeys with basements, except where altered, with walls of gault brick and slate-covered roofs. It was built to a symmetrical design over all, in 1819 (Cambridge Chronicle, 10 Dec.). The four houses at the W. end were remodelled and heightened to three storeys late in the same century.
Downing Terrace presents an original architectural composition to Lensfield Road, which despite inconsistency in scale between the centrepiece and the rest, and ill-advised alterations, makes a valuable contribution to the interest and variety of the street architecture in Cambridge.
The terrace comprises a narrow double-fronted house forming the centrepiece, with a wall-arcade of lofty narrow arches embracing the openings on basement, ground and first floors, and six houses to each side, each house being of one and a half bays under the modular control of a continuous wall-arcade, as shown on the diagram facing p. 362; the tripartite grouping of the arches is related to the party-walls within containing the fireplaces. The upper part of the centrepiece has been altered, possibly heightened, but the original form is not recoverable. The doorway in the middle is round-headed, with a fanlight; the other doorways have reeded doorcases and shallow hoods. All the windows have double-hung sashes except those describing sectors of a circle; they have hinged casements. Many of the panelled shutters to the ground-floor windows have been removed. The accompanying diagram shows the original features of the four W. houses that have survived the remodelling, including the imposts of the wall-arcade and the doorcases, though the latter have been heightened by the insertion of lights over the doors.
Regent Street
E. side:—
(252) Glengarry Hotel, No. 41, some 34 yds. S.E. of the entrance to Downing College, of three storeys with basement, with walls of gault brick and slate-covered roofs, was built c. 1830. The outside has since been painted white with red dressings. It was the first home, from 1871 to 1875, of the Society that later became Newnham College. The street-front is symmetrical and in three bays, the openings being set in large expanses of brickwork; it has a plat-band at first-floor sill-level and widely projecting eaves. The roofs are of low pitch. The doorway in the middle is of two plain orders with a semi-circular head containing a fanlight with radial glazing-bars. The E. side is in part masked; the part free has a shallow plinth, a later bay-window on the ground floor and other windows including one with a semicircular head lighting the staircase.
Inside, on the ground floor are two original fireplacesurrounds, one moulded, the other of reeded marble, and both with paterae at the angles; three more remain on the upper floors. The staircase has cut strings, slender square balusters, newels in the form of attenuated columns, and a moulded ramped handrail.
Parker's Piece
S.E. side:—
(253) Gresham House, standing in its grounds on the corner of Gonville Place and Gresham Road, of two storeys with cellars, has walls of gault brick and slate-covered roofs of low pitch. It was built c. 1830, the dining-room perhaps being an addition of slightly later date, and is an example of the villa-type of house of the period. It consists of a roughly square main block, with a smaller block clasping the N. angle and a lower S.E. range containing the dining-room and kitchen parallel with one another; the kitchen-offices were extended S. later in the same century. The house has a symmetrical S.W. front to the main block, of greater breadth than height, with slight projections towards the ends, a shallow plinth, a platband at first-floor level, and widely projecting eaves with coupled brackets. In the middle is a doorway with a semi-circular head protected by an open timber porch with freestanding Ionic columns supporting a plain entablature. The only fenestration to the S.W. consists of an original window over the porch and a modern round window further N. The horizontal features are continued across the other sides, which have more regular fenestration including a three-sided bay-window on the N. and a french-window to the dining-room in the S.E. range. Round windows have been inserted in the S.E. wall of this last in modern times.
Inside, between the hall and stairhall is an archway with a segmental head springing from enriched cornices supported on brackets. A number of original fittings remain, including doors and doorcases. The staircase has cut strings with scrollbrackets beneath the returns of the moulded edges to the treads, one slender turned newel and a mahogany moulded handrail; the balusters in the 17th-century style are modern replacements.
N.E. side:—
(254) House, No. 44 Park Side, now flats, 45 yds. from East Road, of two storeys, with battered walls of gault brick and slate-covered roofs of low pitch, was built late in the second quarter of the 19th century and extended N.E. later in the same century. The street-front is symmetrical and in three bays. The entrance in the middle has stone freestanding Ionic columns and pilaster-responds at the sides supporting an entablature to form a shallow outer porch; the doorway is in the back of a shallow inner porch. The flanking ground-floor windows are large and have stucco surrounds comprising side-pilasters and an entablature; they contain tripartite sash-hung frames, the middle light being wider than the side lights. On the first floor are three normal sash-hung windows. In the back wall is a large round-headed window lighting the staircase; the bay-window is an addition.
(255) Houses, Nos. 38 to 40 and 41 Park Side (Plate 302), comprising two blocks, standing respectively either side of Warkworth Terrace, originally of three storeys with basements, have walls of gault brick with stone and stucco dressings and slate-covered roofs; a mansard containing attics has been added to Nos. 38–40. They are not in R. G. Baker's map of Cambridge of 1830, but date from the same decade for they are shown in the print of the Coronation Dinner of 1838 (Litho. by G. Scharf. R. Ackermann, London). Clearly a moderately ambitious scheme for two unified and symmetrical blocks, each containing three houses, flanking the entrance to the Terrace was proposed, each with a recessed centre screened on the ground floor by an open colonnade extending between the flanking wings. The N.W. block was completed. The S.E. block only progressed as far as the first wing; structural provision for the recessed continuation remains visible in the S.E. wall.
To the S.W. the buildings have stone plat-bands at first-floor sill level across the two-bay wings, a stucco cornice at second-floor sill level across the five recessed bays and stopping against the wings, continuous stone plat-bands at eaves level, and parapet-walls. The stucco colonnade has square columns supporting an entablature surmounted by the balustraded parapet to a first-floor balcony. The entrance-doorways to Nos. 38 and 39 are plain, those in Warkworth Terrace to Nos. 40 and 41 have stucco pilasters at the sides and entablatures. The windows contain double-hung sashes and many of those on the ground and first floors retain slatted shutters; rectangular recesses mostly take the place of windows in the end walls. Inside, the plans of all the houses differ; in No. 40 the layout of the staircase at right angles to the entrance-lobby is unusual and visually successful.
No. 39 is equipped with an outside bell and heavy bars in a number of the windows, suggesting an institutional purpose. Before 1850 the Rev. James Scholefield, Regius Professor of Greek, established in Park Side a 'Female Servants' Training Institution' (C. H. Cooper, Memorials of Cambridge, III, 186).
The two-storey Coach-houses some 17 yds. behind the houses are original; they are of brick with slate-covered roofs.
(256) Houses, Nos. 36, 37 Park Side, a pair, close N.W. of the foregoing, of three storeys with basements, have walls of gault brick and slate-covered roofs. They are shown in the lithograph of the Coronation Dinner of 1838 and form a single symmetrical block similar in general character to the houses in Benet Place (Monuments (248–50)). Small singlestorey projections at each end contain stucco-faced porches. Towards Parker's Piece the lateral entrance-doorways have square attached Doric columns without taper at the sides supporting a plain entablature concealing the flat roofs behind. The main block has ranges of four double-hung sash-windows on each floor, a plat-band at first-floor sill-level and a timber eaves-cornice. The pyramidal roof is of low pitch. All the glazing-bars have been removed from the windows. The other sides of the building are of no particular note.
(257) House, No. 27, standing 65 yds. from Clarendon Street, of two storeys with basement and attics, has walls of gault brick in part faced with stucco and slate-covered roofs. It was built about the middle of the 19th century to an eclectic Classical design of some monumentality. An addition has been made subsequently on the N., the original plan being symmetrical in outline. The Park front is in three bays, the middle bay projecting boldly. The whole of the ground floor has a rusticated facing of stucco; at the wall-head is a simplified entablature with stucco cornice pedimented over the projection, and a low parapet-wall. The entrance-doorway in the middle has a surround in low relief with straight Doric pilasters supporting a plain entablature with a blocking-course surmounted by a shaped panel. The ground-floor window in each of the side bays has a tripartite sash-hung timber frame set in a shallow rusticated projection rising from basementlevel and finishing in a cornice just below the first-floor window. The three main first-floor windows have stucco surrounds consisting of strip-pilasters standing on sills resting on shaped brackets and supporting simplified entablatures with segmental pediments. In the sides of the central projection are plain windows and blind recesses. In the mansard roof are three dormer-windows.
To the N.E. is a projection larger than that described to the S.W.; here and across each end a simple brick cornice continues the stucco cornice described above.
The Coach-house standing free some 5 yds. to the N.W. is contemporary with the house. It is of two storeys but low, with brick and tile Doric pilasters clasping the angles and supporting a continuous simplified entablature pedimented over the N. and S. ends. The carriage-entrance has a segmental head.
N.W. side:
Park Terrace (Plate 302) includes sixteen houses overlooking Parker's Piece built at different times in the second quarter of the 19th century under a single comprehensive scheme. It consists of five blocks of buildings: in the middle two houses, Nos. 7 and 8, set back behind the building line and designed as a unit; two long terraces of taller houses, Nos. 1 to 6 and 9 to 14, on the building line and linked to the first by screen-walls, and, pavilion-like on the extremities, two freestanding houses, Park Lodge and Camden House, complete in themselves; only the two terraces are alike, the other three blocks differ from them and from one another, though the end houses balance in mass and form.
The first leases from Jesus College (in College Muniment Room) indicate more or less the building sequence: Nos. 7 and 8 in 1831; Nos. 1 to 6 in 1835; Nos. 11 and 12 in 1839; Nos. 9 and 10 in 1840. Thus the middle block was completed first, then the S.W. terrace followed by the opposite terrace; the original lease of Nos. 13 and 14 has not been traced (Chanticleer CXLVI, May 1948). But all, including Park Lodge and Camden House, were standing and roofed by 1838 for they are shown in the lithograph of the Coronation Dinner in that year on Parker's Piece. In the following description the buildings are grouped architecturally under Monument Nos. 258–60.
In Park Terrace a controlling ownership, a long-term plan, and sensibility have created an extensive group of town houses, symmetrical in lay-out and mass, of much distinction.
(258) Houses, Nos. 1 to 14 Park Terrace, all of three storeys with basements, and some with attics, have walls of gault brick and slate-covered roofs. Their disposition and history is described in the introduction to Park Terrace above.
The block comprising Houses Nos. 7 and 8 was linked originally to the flanking terraces only by screen-walls; it has since been extended E. and W. and No. 7 now joins the S.W. terrace. The original building is of four bays with small projections at each end, of the same height, containing the entrances. At first-floor sill-level is a plat-band, continued as the capping to the screen-walls, and at the eaves a frieze and boxed gutter on brick dentils; these last occur only over the brickwork between the windows. The entrance-doorways have rectangular lights above the panelled doors; the steps up to No. 8 retain original cast-iron railings with latticework panels. All the windows are sash-hung; only those on the first floor of No. 7 retain their slatted shutters and only those in the basement their glazing-bars.
The two terraces, Houses Nos. 1 to 6 and 9 to 14, are loftier than the foregoing, have taller sash-hung windows and parapet-walls. Their most prominent feature is a cast-iron covered balcony extending the full length of the first floor of each terrace. It is supported on cast-iron foliated scroll-brackets and has a balustrade, standards and frieze all decorated with a free adaptation of the Greek honeysuckle ornament; the sheetmetal pent roof is flared. Fragments of balustrading similar to the foregoing remain fencing some of the basement areas and No. 2 has an elaborate scroll-work balustrade to the steps up to the entrance, with a newel in the form of an enriched column. Many of the houses have small additions at the back. Inside, generally the entrance-passage widens out towards the back to contain the staircase. This last has slender square balusters and curves, without newels, between the flights. On the ground floor is one front and one back room; the main room is on the first floor, the full width of the front and lit by three windows.
The small front gardens were originally fenced by railings on dwarf walls between brick piers; the railings have been removed and a general unkempt appearance mars the dignity of the terraces.
(259) Park Lodge, on the corner of Parker Street and flanking Monument (258), of two storeys, has walls of gault brick with some stone dressings and slate-covered roofs. It was built in the second quarter of the 19th century (see the introduction to Park Terrace above). Of the villa type of house typical of the period, it consists of a rectangular main block, broader than tall, with widely overhanging eaves on slender shaped brackets and a low-pitched hipped roof. The front is strictly symmetrically designed, in five bays, the entrance-doorway having a stone surround with antae supporting an entablature and console-brackets under the cornice. At first-floor sill-level is a continuous stone plat-band and all the windows contain double-hung sashes with their glazingbars. A N.W. wing extends beside Parker Street; it is of two storeys but lower than the main block.
(260) Camden House, flanking Monument (258) on the S.W. and balancing the foregoing, is of two storeys with walls of gault brick and slated roof. It was built in the second quarter of the 19th century (see the introduction to Park Terrace above). Like Park Lodge, it is of the villa type of house of the period, consisting of a rectangular main block, broader than tall, with low-pitched roof and wide eaves. Strict symmetry governs the more conspicuous sides, necessitating the use of blind window-recesses to preserve it. The Park front is in three bays, the three rectangular ground-floor windows being set in round-headed wall-arches. The entrance is from the side street on the N.E.; the door-case has side-pilasters supporting an entablature all of stucco. A N.W. wing contains the kitchen. Inside, most of the fittings are original; the principal rooms have enriched cornices and white marble fireplace-surrounds, moulded and with bosses at the corners. The entrance-hall is spanned by two arches springing from pilasters and the staircase has slender square balusters, no newels.
(261) Furness Lodge, next S.W. of Monument (260), of two storeys with basement, has walls of gault brick and slate-covered roofs. It was built about the middle of the 19th century and forms no part of the unified lay-out of Park Terrace described above. The design is more pretentious and less successful than that of the earlier 19th-century 'villa' exemplified by Camden House or Park Lodge (Monuments (259, 260)). The front is in five bays, with plat-bands at ground and first-floor sill-levels. The doorway in the middle has a neo-Greek surround with square Ionic pilasters in antis supporting an entablature with wreaths in the frieze; the broad first-floor window above it has strip-pilasters at the sides, console-brackets supporting a square cornice and a castiron balcony of ogee profile. Under the deep boxed gutter are small brackets, and pendants at the corners. The roof is of low pitch and at the ridge are two chimney-stacks. At the back are two gables with shaped barge-boards and a large round-headed window lighting the staircase.
(262) Terrace, Nos. 1 to 6 Parker Street, on the N.E. side, extending from 67 yds. to 127 yds. from Parker's Piece, of two storeys, has walls of gault brick and slate-covered roofs. Cut in the brickwork at the back of No. 5 (plan p. 365) are the initials and date E N 1838. On stylistic grounds, the six houses may well be of this age. Two through-passages group the houses in pairs and the whole street-front, from end to end, is divided into unequal bays by colossal pilasters supporting a severely simplified entablature. Three bays define the separate houses, two extra bays the passages; the entrances to these last are of two plain orders, with round heads and stone imposts, the imposts being continued as strings down the passages, and hung with simple iron gates. The doorway in the middle bay of each house has a small oblong light above the door. Inside are two rooms, one behind the other, to each side of the entrance passage, the width of one of the back rooms being reduced to leave space for a square staircase. Behind the houses are small square yards enclosed by brick walls and containing privies in one corner.
Christ's Piece
E. side:
(263) Houses, a pair, Nos. 5 and 13 Emmanuel Road, standing some 78 yds. apart symmetrically between Parker Street and Orchard Street, facing Christ's Piece, are of two storeys and have walls of gault brick with stone dressings and slate-covered roofs. They were built as grooms' houses between 1826 and 1828 and architecturally devised as the small pavilion-like terminal features to a long range on the N.W. boundary of the grounds of Charles Humfrey's house, Clarendon House, which stood between Clarendon Street, Victoria Street and Earl Street. The range was built by Humfrey for letting as mews but the middle part was leased to the Borough and adapted for use as a police station. It is shown on R. G. Baker's map of 1830. (Plans for lease of police station: University Library, Maps 53 (2) 84.13; Cambridge Chronicle 6 Jan. 1837, 5 May 1838, 18 July 1846.)
The N.W. end of each house has the middle part recessed, so to suggest broad pilaster-strips at the sides supporting a pediment spanning the whole. Bay-windows have been added, of two storeys to No. 5, concealing most of the face, of one storey to No. 13, leaving visible the original first-floor segmental-headed window, which interrupts the horizontal members of the pediment and extends into the tympanum. The refaced S.E. half of the S.W. side of No. 13 shows where the main linking range adjoined; the corresponding N.E. side of No. 5 is masked. The other walls contain segmental-headed openings.
In the boundary-wall to Emmanuel Road are original octagonal gate-piers of brick to carriage-entrances to N.W. and S.W. respectively of the two houses. Piers have subsequently been inserted between them to restrict the entrances to foot passengers.
264 Orchard Terrace (Plate 310), fourteen houses, Nos. 1 to 13 and 16, on the N.E. side of the street, of one storey with attics, have walls of gault brick and tile-covered mansard roofs. The terrace appears on R. G. Baker's map of 1830 but not on S. I. Neale's of 1820. It was continuous for some 140 yds. until in the middle of the 19th century Nos. 14 and 15 were demolished to make way for Clarendon Street, leaving No. 16 isolated. (Cambridge Chronicle 7 June 1845 refers to the Terrace 'built about twenty years'.)
The buildings of Orchard Terrace are of very humble character, but the small scale of the fronts and the repetition of their features, the low eaves, the unbroken extent of the mansard roofs and great chimney-stacks produce a most striking effect, enhanced by the fortuitous curved lay-out of the street.
Towards the street each house has a front door in the middle, with timber door-case with side pilaster-strips supporting a simplified pedimented entablature, and a plain sash-hung window to each side; no windows break the roof surfaces facing this way. Offices have been added along the back and the attics are lit by dormer-windows above. No. 16 shows how the houses may be modernised without destruction of their external character.
New Square
(265) New Square (Plate 310), a large open space (approximately 150 yds. by 80 yds.) extending from Emmanuel Road opposite the N.E. corner of Christ's Piece, bounded on the E. and the greater part of the N. and S. by terrace-houses, Nos. 1 to 47 and No. 2 Fitzroy Street, was an entirely new development, to a single coherent design, in the second quarter of the 19th century. Only two houses, Nos. 34 and 35, have since been rebuilt. The terraces are of two storeys, in part with basements, with 9 in. walls of gault brick and slate-covered roofs (plan of No. 16, p. 365).
The first notice of a resident in New Square appears in 1825 (Camb. Chronicle 1 April) although the earliest leases in the books of Jesus College, the landlords, are of 1829 and 1830. The S. terrace, Nos. 1 to 20, was built first, from the E. end. The E. terrace, Nos. 21 to 33 and No. 2 Fitzroy Street, was built in 1834, and the N. terrace, Nos. 34 to 47, in 1834–35 (Chanticleer, Jesus College House Mag., CXLVI, Summer 1948). Though generally uniform except for the pedimented centrepiece to each terrace, the houses have minor variations on plan for they were evidently built by different persons on building leases from Jesus College and some by the Society itself. A house in the middle of the E. terrace was advertised for sale in 1838 because, 'built in the best possible manner, the outlay has so far exceeded the owner's capital' (Camb. Chronicle 30 June). The lease for the same house was forty years from 1834; similarly the leases for Nos. 21 to 23, and 31 and 32 on the E. and Nos. 35 and 36 on the N. are known from sale advertisements to have been from 1834 (Camb. Chronicle Sept. and Nov. 1843). Thus though there are consistent differences in the houses, for example in the two halves of the E. terrace, they must indicate the progress of building rather than significant differences in date.
R. G. Baker's map, 1830, shows the S. terrace only; R. Harwood's map, 1840, shows three terraces. Most of the houses are now University lodgings.
New Square is a spacious urban development of the first half of the 19th century given coherence by the control of the external appearance of the houses and distinction by the application of architectural principles, though the simplest, to the project. The visual effect of the whole is obscured by the bus and car park occupying the Square and in 1956 the E. terrace was marred by demolitions.
The South Terrace (see illustration opposite), of c. 1825 is in two separate lengths, the four W. houses, Nos. 1 to 4, being set at an angle towards the S.W. and of these the first and last are rather larger houses than the rest. Nos. 12 and 13 are distinguished as the centrepiece by four brick pilasters on the front supporting a pediment, now lacking its horizontal members. In the pediment is the shield-of-arms and crest of Brand. All the houses have doorways with round heads, without imposts, panelled doors and fanlights with radiating glazing-bars, where the original glazing survives. All the windows are plain, with double-hung sashes. At the back are small two-storey projections. East Terrace (see illustration facing p. 362) and North Terrace, of 1834–35, are generally similar to the foregoing, but Nos. 27 and 28 and Nos. 41 and 42 being the respective centrepieces are rather more elaborate. They are distinguished by slightly greater height and have five pilasters to each, dividing the front into two wide central and two narrow flanking bays. The wide bays are pedimented and in the tympanum is a small light, in one round, in the other round-headed. The doorways have imposts and some of the original window-shutters remain; weathering of the brickwork shows that once all the windows had shutters. Most of the houses in the S. half only of the E. terrace have original two-storey projections at the back like those in the S. terrace; Nos. 27 to 33, that is, the rest northward, and the N. terrace are the houses with basements. Inside, the houses are well fitted. The original fireplace-surrounds have moulded architraves with roundels at the angles. The staircases have cut strings, turned newels and plain balusters.
Maids' Causeway (fn. 1)
(266) Houses, thirty-nine, Nos. 4 to 20 on the S. side at the western end, and Nos. 2 to 17 Willow Walk, Nos. 1 to 5 and the hostel Fair Street, and Nos. 1 to 8 Short Street, generally of two storeys with basements, some with attics, have walls of gault brick and slate-covered roofs. They stand on a site, bounded by the streets named, formerly known as Doll's Close, which was bought by Charles Humfrey, architect and builder, in part from James Burleigh in 1809 and in part from Downing College in 1810, and developed by him, the lay-out of the houses being to a carefully balanced and integrated plan. Building was started in 1815 and finished by 1826. The principal houses on the site are those in Maids' Causeway (see Plate 308 and illustration facing p. 321) overlooking Butt Green consisting of five large detached and two pairs of semi-detached houses set well back from the road, symmetrically disposed, uniform in design and linked by straight screenwalls. On the extremities of the foregoing, linked to it originally by curved screen-walls, the end houses of the smaller terrace-houses returning at right angles down Fair Street and Short Street form pavilion-like terminal features. The same two terraces return at their S. end a short way along Willow Walk where, centrally between the returns but originally separated from them by open spaces, is the Willow Walk terrace of still smaller houses, which are shown overlooking an open space, now New Square, in R. G. Baker's map of 1830. The accompanying diagrammatic plan, though in some minor respects necessarily conjectural, indicates the original scheme.
In November 1815 Humfrey promised to offer for sale in the spring of 1816 'skeleton shells' and 'sites' of houses here. In 1816 one of the houses was advertised as 'newly erected and unfinished'. They were usually sold on forty-year leases, Humfrey retaining the freehold. After raising a mortgage of £7,000 on Doll's Close in 1842, he was obliged to sell out in 1846. (Cambridge Chronicle for 22 Sept. 1815, 6 Sept. 1816, 2 Oct. 1820, 6 April 1821, 9 Aug. 1822, 7 Oct. 1825, 7 April 1826, 11 Aug. 1826, 24 July 1847; University Library, Maps 53 (2) 84.13).
The Causeway houses were built 37 ft. wide on plots 46 ft. wide. The Willow Walk houses are 22 ft. wide. Nearly all the spaces originally between the houses have subsequently been filled by extensions and outbuildings; the curved wall at the W. end of the Causeway houses has been replaced by later dwellings, and other alterations are noted below.
The Doll's Close buildings are of much interest as an example of a social and economic urban development of the early 19th century. They include dwellings proportioned in fact and appearance to two independent classes of society and, presumably, in Willow Walk, for the outside staff of the wealthier of the two. It is of note as a development designed and controlled and completed by an architect who was a speculative builder; further, the aspect to Maids' Causeway despite alterations is one of architectural distinction.
Maids' Causeway: Nos. 4 to 20 (plan of No. 16 p. 365), nine houses (see illustration facing p. 321), are of two storeys with basements and attics. Houses Nos. 4 and 6, 18 and 20 are semidetached, entrance to the end houses being in concealed projections at the side. The building-history is given above; the later alterations other than those described include the addition of a storey to Nos. 4 and 6, and a S. extension nearly doubling the size of No. 12; the same houses have been more or less damaged by alterations to their principal fronts. With these exceptions the street-fronts are uniform in design, each is in three bays, the wall-openings being set in large areas of brickwork. They have plinths, plat-bands at first-floor sill level, simple cornices of slight projection, parapet-walls and mansard roofs. The entrances in the middle have timber doorcases with panelled and horizontally fluted strip-pilasters at the sides and simplified pedimented cornices. The windows are plain and sash-hung, except the pedimented dormer-windows, which contain casements. Screen-walls the height of the ground floor, with low buildings concealed behind them, link all the houses. The backs are without elaboration; Nos. 8 and 16, a symmetrical pair, were planned with large central projections; the end semi-detached pairs were given greater depth than the rest, the latitude in planning so gained making it possible to maintain elevational uniformity with the other houses. Curved screen-walls, so far as they survive, similar to those already described but with widely-spaced pilaster-strips, link the foregoing to the 'pavilions' terminating Fair Street and Short Street. The neo-Greek porch of No. 12 is a mid 19th-century addition.
Inside, a typical house has a central entrance passage leading through to a staircase. To each side is a large room, one with a window at the back as well as at the front. On each of the floors above is a room over the entrance passage. The simple staircase has cut strings. All the fittings are quite plain.
Bounding the gardens to Maids' Causeway are timber fences, largely original, with top and bottom rails, the former with iron spikes, square standards and latticework infilling.
Fair Street: houses Nos. 1 to 5 and an unnumbered continuation to the S., now a Church Army hostel, equivalent to two houses, are of two storeys with basements. They form a terrace of uniform design backing on the gardens of the foregoing; the small original annexes at the rear have all been heightened to two storeys in the later 19th century. No. 1 has the N. end pedimented above a broad wall-arch with elliptical head embracing the single windows on basement, ground and first floors; between the two upper windows is a brick panel and the square head of the top window extends up behind the soffit of the wall-arch, which is rebated to receive it. The rear annexe, heightened and with windows inserted, is no longer disguised by the screen-wall to the Maids' Causeway houses, and an original doorway in the wall has been blocked. The street-front of Nos. 1 to 5 is regular, with a brick plat-band at first-floor sill level, plain eaves-gutters and timber doorcases with side-pilasters and simplified entablatures. Between the foregoing and the even plainer S. continuation containing the hostel is an open archway with segmental head occupying the whole of the ground floor and giving access for carriages to a service road behind (see diagrammatic plan). The houses are each of two bays, the hostel of five, and all the windows are plain with double-hung sashes. The S. wall of the short return towards Willow Walk has flanking strip-pilasters of brick and ranges of three windows on each floor, those in the middle blocked.
Short Street: houses Nos. 1 to 8 repeat, in reverse, the Fair Street houses described above though the alterations and additions have been more extensive. The N. end now has a two-storey bay-window filling most of the wall-arch, and the screen-wall originally extending E. from it has been replaced by houses; No. 1 has a mid 19th-century door-surround; No. 5 has been remodelled as a public-house, No. 6 combined with it, the carriage-way it incorporated being reduced to a narrow foot-way, and extensive additions made at the back.
Willow Walk: houses Nos. 2 to 17 (plan of No. 10 p. 365) are of two storeys with basements. They form a symmetrical terrace, architecturally accentuated in the middle and at the ends, placed centrally between the S. returns of Fair Street and Short Street; the latter, though of the simplest character, as described above, are devised as detached terminal features to the terrace, but the spaces between have now been built up. The centrepiece projects slightly and is in three bays divided and flanked by brick pilasters supporting a pediment with timber cornice. The end houses also project, and have the entrances in the return walls. The doorways on the front have elliptical brick arches, all but the two centremost being paired under embracing arches, and the doors are panelled. The windows generally are plain, some retaining shutters, but those on the ground floor in the end houses are set in elliptical headed recesses. The small gardens at the back are enclosed by brick walls. The interior arrangement varies slightly from that of the typical terrace-house.
(267) Terrace-Houses, formerly Brunswick Place, extending on the N. side of Maids' Causeway some 165 yds. E. from Brunswick Walk, interrupted by Brunswick Gardens and Brunswick Terrace, and on the S. side between Fair Street and Causeway Passage, of two storeys mostly with basements and attics, are of gault brick with slate-covered roofs. They were built in the 19th century before 1830, being shown in R. G. Baker's map of that year, and have many minor alterations additions. The houses vary, within a restricted range; they differ in height, some have plat-bands and parapet-walls; the entrance-doorways are round-headed or square, some being approached up steps with iron balustrades; and several houses have cast-iron balconies or guards to the upper windows. Only Nos. 24, 26, 28, eastward from Fair Street, are designed as a single composition in seven bays with the middle five recessed, but they are much altered. Nos. 49, 51 and 53 have a particular grace. The houses are in general plain but of some dignity and accord more with the residential district close W. than with the Barnwell area of development next described, in which they stand. The interior arrangement provides a hall-passage.
The terraces, Brunswick Walk, including North Terrace and Brunswick Terrace, N. of the foregoing, though of much the same date are less distinguished but pleasant in their simplicity and lack of ostentation. An exception is No. 12 Brunswick Terrace, with a street-front in three bays, that in the middle projecting, a central doorway with moulded architrave, a dentil-course, parapet-wall and mansard roof; it appears to have been the beginning of a terrace of some individuality never carried further. Willow Place and Causeway Passage, close S. of Maids' Causeway, are even less distinguished than the foregoing though again of much the same date.
Barnwell Area
The buildings described below stand S. of the river Cam and E. and N.E. of the line Brunswick Walk, Fair Street, Jesus Terrace, Orchard Street, Prospect Row, and Petersfield, an area intersected by Newmarket Road and East Road. The greater part of the development is of the first half of the 19th century and of mixed industrial and residential character, but in so far as the former village of Barnwell is the nucleus of the area and the Newmarket Road the successor in part of the former Barnwell Causeway several older houses occur; these and the more noteworthy houses are singled out below before describing in general terms the prevailing character of the built-up area. The rather more distinguished terrace-houses at the W. end of Newmarket Road though within the area are numbered with Maids' Causeway (see Monument 267)). On the S. side of this last the raised foot-way is the only vestige of the Causeway built under the terms of the will of Dr. Perse (died 1615); the present appellation seems comparatively modern, deriving possibly from the Knight and Mortlock almshouses for 'poor godly, ancient maidens' formerly on the site of Nos 64–7 Jesus Lane, for it is still Barnwell Causeway on William Custance's map of 1798.
Newmarket Road
North Side:—
(268) Burleigh House, No. 13, nearly opposite Christchurch, of two storeys with cellar and attics, has walls of gault brick with stone dressings and slate-covered roofs. It was built in the 18th century but in the second half of the 19th century the front was extensively remodelled and a cross wing added on the E. Of the original S. front only the walling with flush quoins, a plat-band at first-floor sill level, a cornice and parapet-wall survive. The stonework of the doorway and windows is all later and disguises the original appearance of the building. The original horizontal features are continued across the free sides of the house; the W. end has twin parapeted gables and the back a later Doric porch; modern offices have been added on the N.W. All the sashes are renewed. The interior is divided into four by a spine wall containing the fireplaces and cross walls. The staircase in the N.E. quarter is of the 19th century. Some of the rooms retain original bolection-moulded panelling, with dado-rail and cornice, and bolection-moulded overmantels. The eponym is James Burleigh, F.S.A., carrier and landowner, of Cambridge, died c. 1830.
(269) House, No. 61, N.E. of the opening to Wellington Street, of two storeys with cellar and attics, has walls of yellow and red brick and slate-covered roofs. It was built in the first half of the 18th century and probably comprised a main range with a single-storey kitchen behind; subsequently in the same century the latter was extended E. and a second storey added over the whole. Early in the 19th century the interior was remodelled. The 18th-century S. front, of yellow brick, is symmetrical and in five narrow bays; it has a discontinuous plat-band at first-floor level and a timber eaves-cornice. The entrance-doorway in the middle has an early 19th-century timber door-case, panelled and with weathered hood. The window-openings have segmental heads and contain double-hung sashes in frames flush with the wall-face. The gabled and parapeted ends of the front range are also of yellow brickwork. The red brick range behind has an eaves-cornice of the same material and 19th-century and modern windows. Inside, the staircase up to the first floor, is of the early 19th century, the original N. wall of the stairhall being cut away for it; it has slender square balusters, no newels. From the first floor to the attics the original staircase remains; it rises round a rectangular well and has close strings, square newels and turned balusters.
N.E. of the house is a large timber-framed and brick outbuilding, much altered but probably of the late 17th century, with a massive central chimney-stack. The ground floor now forms garages.
(270) Abbey House, some 33 yds. back from the Road, 17 yds. E. of Abbey Road, of one and two storeys with cellars and attics, has plastered timber-framed and brick walls and tile-covered roofs. In the main it is the work of three periods, the late 16th, the late 17th and the early 18th century, but many minor alterations and additions have been made since and most of the windows are renewals or insertions of the later 18th or 19th century. The original timber-framed building is T-shaped and comprises the S. half of the house. In 1678 a large brick addition almost doubling the size of the foregoing was made on the N. In c. 1700 the original building was faced in brick and both it and the addition slightly extended on the W. and on the E. and W. respectively; at the same time the interior was extensively refitted. Later 18th-century additions are on the N. and N.E. In the present century the house has been divided into three dwellings. It was given to the Cambridge Folk Museum by Lord Fairhaven in 1946.
Abbey House, though with many botched alterations, is a building of much character with a dated 'Dutch' gable. It contains panelling of c. 1700.
Architectural Description—The W. side has towards the S. end the projecting staircase-wing of the original building. The wing is refaced in the lower part but, above, the N. wall retains some old pargeting and the W. gable has original moulded bargeboards with a shaped pendant at the apex; it is flanked by large brick chimney-stacks projecting from the W. wall of the main range. Both stacks are original with square clustered shafts; the lower part of that to the N. is masked by an 18th-century and modern single-storey addition. Brick walls of c. 1700 have been built flush with the projecting face of the S. stack, up to the eaves, leaving a narrow space between them and the original external wall of the main range; remaining on the old external face is an area of original pargeting enriched with strapwork and jewel ornament. The E. face of the late 16th-century house has two framed and plastered gables separated by a short length of plain eaves. The first floor and probably the gable-ends originally projected, but in c. 1700 the front wall of the two main floors was rebuilt in red brick; the whole is now flush and in advance of the original eaves. The brickwork has a platband at first-floor level and windows with flat heads; the three-sided S. bay-window is an early 19th-century addition. Both gables retain original moulded bargeboards and pendants; in the N. gable is a 19th-century window; the S. gable is blind and comprises a dormer. A lead moulded rainwater-head of c. 1700 is modelled with two churchwarden's pipes in saltire; (this came in modern times from No. 11 Sidney Street, now gone, associated by A. B. Gray (Cambridge Revisited, 40) with Joshua Lee's pipe-works). The brick work of c. 1700 is returned across the S. end of the house below the gable and includes the doorway to the narrow space flanking the chimney-stack described above; again this gable-end is of plastered timber-framing and retains original bargeboards and a pendant at the apex. A lead rainwater-head contemporary with the brickwork is decorated with fleurs-de-lys and a rose.
The 1678 N. addition was originally more or less symmetrical; it is defined by a moulded brick plinth, so far as it survives. The main gabled bay in the middle of the W. side (Plate 307) has plat-bands at first and attic-floor levels and a shaped parapet consisting of concave quadrants rising to an inset semicircle. The parapet has an oversailing capping of tiles on bricks projecting in dentil-like fashion. The windows on the ground and first floors are in new positions but the original pairs of windows with flat brick arches, though blocked, are visible; the original attic window, with renewed frame, in the gableend has a short brick plat-band immediately above the arch. In the semicircular head of the gable under a square label is a sunk panel containing the date 1678. Of the flanking bays, that to the N. has the eaves at first-floor level; the moulded plinth continues without break from the gabled bay suggesting that the wall was originally in this position, unless the whole is a reconstruction, with re-use of original material, some 4 ft. forward, the original position being marked by a ceiling-beam inside. The front wall of the S. flanking bay is clearly an 18th-century reconstruction well in advance of the gabled bay; it is of two storeys, now with a flat roof and has a plat-band at the level of the doorheads. The corresponding bay on the opposite side of the house has similarly been rebuilt further out contemporaneously with the underbuilding of the E. front of the late 16th-century house, which it continues; the two late 17th-century bays N. of the foregoing, so far as they are not concealed by the later N.E. addition, have a moulded brick plinth. This last returns round the N. end of the house until concealed by the later N. addition. These two 18th-century additions have plinths of brick and reused mediaeval ashlar, presumably from the ruins of Barnwell priory close by, and timber-framing above. The S. wall of the N. addition projects westward to form the E. respond of a gateway now destroyed; the projection has a reused chamfered ashlar plinth and retains a hinge-pin on the N.
Inside the original house are longitudinal ceiling-beams, chamfered where exposed, now rather to the W. of centre. The Hall, originally perhaps a room and a passage, is paved with flagstones brought from the ruins of Barnwell priory by a Mr. Bullen some years before 1812 (C.A.S. Proc. VII, 235); it is wainscoted throughout with bolection-moulded pine panelling of c. 1700 in two heights with a dado-rail and cornice; some mutilation of the panelling was caused by the insertion of the 18th or 19th-century sash-window in the E. wall. The overmantel consists of a horizontal panel flanked by wide pilasters. The two broad two-panel doors are contemporary with the foregoing. The S. room is lined with panelling generally similar to that in the Hall, but of oak, with later panelling above and below the 19th-century bay-window; the fireplace has a bolection-moulded surround. The staircase-wing has much of the timber-framing exposed inside, including the studs etc. of the containing partitions to the cellar stair and to the main stair, wall-plates and a braced tie-beam with studding above in the W. gable-end. The main staircase has been renewed in the lower part, where are slender square balusters, turned newels and a moulded mahogany handrail, but the original position and form are retained; the upper part is original and has a contemporary newel with shaped head.
On the first floor, a bedroom over the hall is lined with reset early 17th-century oak panelling, five panels high, with a fluted frieze; the doors are contemporary and hung on old hinges. The S. room is lined with pine panelling of c. 1700 similar to that in the ground-floor rooms, with a bolection-moulded fireplace-surround and similarly moulded panel in the overmantel between plain pilasters; the door-panelling is mounted on an older door. In both these rooms insertion of the sash-windows has involved some rearrangement of the panelling. In the attic the framed N. gable-end of the 16th-century house survives. Enclosure of the dormer in the S.E. gable is provided by early 17th-century panelling.
In the 1678 extension are longitudinal ceiling-beams in the flanking bays and a cross-beam in the middle, gabled, bay. The N. and the middle rooms on the ground floor were remodelled in c. 1800 and the second contains a moulded fireplace-surround with paterae at the angles. Of the two rooms in the S. bay, that to the W. is now the hall of dwelling No. 2 and contains the first flight of a 19th-century staircase, that to the E. is lined with plain 18th-century wainscoting, two panels high, with a dado-rail and cornice; the overmantel is of c. 1700, with a bolection-moulded panel flanked by panelled pilasters, and the moulded fireplace-surround with roundels at the angles is of c. 1800. On the first floor are two rooms lined with plain 18th-century panelling, one having a bolection-moulded fireplace-surround and overmantel of c. 1700 similar to those already described. The roof is visible in the attics; much of it is of the late 17th century but very rough, with pine rafters and purlins and ash or elm collar-beams. Many of the rooms throughout the house contain 18th-century fitted cupboards with contemporary panelled doors and hinges.
The old Boundary-wall running E.N.E. towards Beche Road from the N.E. addition is for much of the length built on a plinth of 15th-century walling in situ of limestone rubble with flint galleting, which retains a run of some 14 ft. of original moulded stone weathering. The outward face is to the S. and the wall is probably part of the precinct wall of Barnwell priory. The only surviving building of the priory (Monument (64)) stands some 30 yds. away to the N.
In the garden are numerous wrought stones presumably from the priory. They include incorporated in two rustic arches parts of engaged and detached shafts, 12th-century moulded voussoirs and fragments carved with cheveron ornament, a small arch of three chamfered orders, the middle order with rudimentary leaf ornament, and a 13th-century moulded Purbeck stone base used as a capital, etc., elsewhere miscellaneous moulded dressings and, built into the wall flanking the entrance gateway, two mediaeval carved heads.
(271) Oyster House, on the S.W. side of Garlic Row, some 233 yds. from Newmarket Road, of two storeys with cellars and attics, has walls of red brick, except where rebuilt in gault brick, and slate-covered roofs. It is a building of the early 18th century and stands near the middle of the site of Stourbridge Fair. Extensive alterations were made in the late 19th century when the N.W. and N.E. walls were entirely rebuilt and the roof was raised and the pitch reduced. It is associated with the feast succeeding the ceremony of proclaiming Stourbridge Fair by the University Registrary described by H. Gunning (Reminiscences of Cambridge (1885), 1, 148–151), and thereafter with the Court House during the Fair. A plan of 1725 names it 'Mr. Jenyngs's House' (A. B. Gray, Cambridge Revisited (1921), 88 and fig.).
Reset in the rebuilt N.E. front is a stone panel inscribed A.I.L. 1707 and retained to tie back the brickwork are wrought-iron wall-anchors inscribed J. Lee. The S.W. wall has a platband at first-floor level and five bays of wall-openings compressed towards the southern end. The doorway and four ground-floor windows have segmental heads; the heads of the first-floor windows have been renewed; three of the windows are now blocked. Such original features as remain on the S.E. are similar to those just described. Inside, a timber partition containing the doorway to reputedly the old oyster-bar is flanked by turned and twisted posts supporting a timber grille the whole width of the room composed of small turned and twisted balusters between head and base rails, all of the early 18th century. A second doorway also has a section of similar balustrading above. The original staircase has close strings, turned balusters, square newels with round finials and turned pendants, and square moulded handrail. For the rest, the interior has been much altered.
S. side:—
(272) House, now two tenements, Nos. 172, 174, standing 100 yds. W. of Coldham's Lane, of two storeys and with attics in the back wing, has red brick walls and tile and slate-covered roofs. It was built in the first half of the 18th century on a T-shaped plan; in the following century the street range was extend E. and the wing lengthened. The N. front has a brick plinth, a timber cornice and parapet-wall. The ground-floor openings have been altered at different times. On the first floor are three symmetrically-placed windows with double-hung sashes in frames nearly flush with the wall-face. The wing has a plat-band at first-floor level and plain eaves. Inside, the room occupying the whole of the ground floor of the original wing is partly lined with original ovolo-moulded panelling; in the ceiling is a chamfered beam. This room and two on the first floor contain 18th-century fireplace-surrounds of wood with some enrichments.
(273) House, No. 158, temperance hotel, formerly the 'George and Dragon', 14 yds. E. of Leeke Street, of two storeys with cellar and attics, has walls of plastered timber-framing, partly faced with later brick, and tile-covered roofs. The deeds of the house include indentures of 1737 for the land where 'lately stood the ... tenement known as the Magpie'. The house built presumably soon afterwards consisted of a rectangular block beside the road with a staircase bay projecting at the back. Towards the end of the same century the front was rebuilt or cased in brick and a large wing added on the S. A lower E. extension by the road containing a carriage-way and shop is comparatively modern. On the N. is a plat-band at first-floor level stopping short of the full width of the frontage. The ground-floor openings have been altered; the three first-floor windows are symmetrically arranged and have high segmental brick arches. On the roof are two hipped dormer-windows. The interior has been altered; beside the chimney-breast is a cupboard with 18th-century panelled doors on original hinges. The staircase has close strings, square newels and widely spaced turned balusters. In the wing is a late 18th-century wood fireplace-surround with pilasters and entablature, the enriched frieze having figure subjects in the centre panel.
(274) House, now three tenements, Nos. 152, 154, 156, next W. of the foregoing, of three storeys, has walls of brown brickwork with red brick quoins and window-dressings. The roofs are covered with pantiles. It was built early in the 18th century on a comparatively ambitious scale, consisting of a rectangular block to the road. Later 18th-century and modern additions along the back may include original projections no longer identifiable. The ground floor was drastically remodelled and shop-windows were inserted late in the 19th century, when also the E. and W. gable-ends were rebuilt and presumably the roof, which is now of low pitch with plain eaves. On the N. are two moulded brick bands stopping short of the full width of the frontage. The windows, five on each floor, have flat arches of rubbed brick and stone sills; the sash-frames are flush with the wall-face. The free W. end is blind.
(275) House, now three tenements, Nos. 146, 148, 150, next W. of Leeke Street, of two storeys, have timber-framed walls faced with later brickwork and tile-covered roofs. Built perhaps in the late 16th century, it was remodelled early in the 19th century when also additions were made all along the back. No original features remain outside and the central chimney-stack has been rebuilt above roof-level. Inside the E. tenement a post and intersecting chamfered ceiling-beams are exposed on the ground floor and a post and tie-beam on the first floor. In the middle tenement all the timbers are concealed. Each tenement has one room on each floor cut into for a modern staircase.
(276) House, No. 38, standing 22 yds. W. of Wellington Street close N.E. of the former theatre, of three storeys with basement, has walls of gault brick and slate-covered roofs. In 1831 a sale advertisement described it as part of the estate of the late George Peacocke and 'built ... by the late William Wilkins Esq., architect, for his own occupation' (Cambridge Chronicle 9 Dec.). William Wilkins sen. (1751–1815) had built for himself Newnham Cottage (Monument (288)) by c. 1805 and the house may be assigned to the end of the 18th century. It is therefore an early example of a type of house usually associated with the Regency. The E. and W. sides have since been more or less concealed, the former by another house, the latter by an entrance to the former theatre (Monument (277)); minor additions have been made at the back. Inside, the arrangement is little altered; the ground floor is now storerooms; the upper floors are flats.
The walls are of plain brickwork with oversailing courses at the eaves. To the front, the openings are formally though not symmetrically disposed and the doorway is in the western of the three bays; they have flat rubbed brick arches. The first-floor windows open to wrought-iron balconies. The openings at the back of the house, probably not all original, vary in size and are more at random. Inside, 'the entrance-hall, capital dining-room, breakfast room or study, butler's pantry' remain on the ground floor though the partition between the main rooms has been reduced to a dwarf wall. One original plain black fireplace-surround remains. The staircase, now damaged, has winders, slender square balusters and a moulded handrail. In the basement are 'two capital kitchens', on the first floor 'a noble drawing-room, best bedroom adjoining, store room or china closet', on the floor above 'four good rooms'. The drawing-room, now divided, has a slight plaster cornice and an original fireplace with cast-iron grate in a wood surround with reeded convex strip-pilasters at the sides and a plain shelf. (See also the following Monument.)
(277) Former Theatre Royal, known originally as Barnwell Theatre, subsequently as the Festival Theatre, now a store, stands back on the S. side of Newmarket Road, between Wellington Street and Napier Street. The walls are of gault brick and the roofs slate-covered. It was built to replace an earlier theatre in Barnwell in 1814 (Camb. Chronicle 11 Feb., 10 Oct. 1814), 'the fronts of the boxes are painted in arabesque and the proscenium which is supported by four Giallo Antiquo marble pilasters is really simple and magnificent ... the frieze is ornamented with figures in rechausée d' or representing Apollo and Minerva visiting the Muses; the design of the proscenium is carried through the Act Scene ...'. In 1815 William Wilkins sen., 'eminent builder in this town', appeared in a lawsuit as owner and in 1832 a Mr. Wilkins owned six theatres, at Norwich, Bury, Cambridge, Ipswich, Yarmouth and Colchester (ibid. 1832). In 1878 it became a Mission Hall; between the last two wars it was again used as a theatre.
The blocks E. and W. of the stage and along the E. side of the auditorium are early additions. In modern times additions have been made on the N.E. and W. of the auditorium, the first containing an entrance-hall, box-office etc., and a secondary entrance has been contrived on the E. The roof of the stage has been rebuilt and the cyclorama is modern. The original prosceniumopening with its doors and most of the original decoration have been destroyed in the present century.
The Theatre is of interest for the retention of the early 19th-century arrangement of the auditorium.
The exterior of the Theatre is quite plain. Original windows are either blocked or concealed by additions. In the back wall of the stage is a modern window in the blocking of a larger opening. Modern iron staircases give additional means of exit from the auditorium.
Inside, the auditorium has lower, middle and upper circles, U-shaped on plan, extending laterally close up to the proscenium-opening. The circles have solid fronts, the upper two with applied cornice-mouldings, and plain cast-iron supporting columns. Separating the lower and middle circles from the crush-rooms behind are polygonal U-shaped walls pierced by numerous doorways. These last may have opened upon separate boxes. The auditorium floor is stepped in the clear.
The proscenium-opening now extends the full width of the stage and is spanned by a timber truss; above, in a framing the shape of the tympanum of a curved pediment, are painted the Royal arms of Queen Victoria with supporters and attendant putti. Old candelabra with five branches remain on the front of the upper circle.
(278) Houses (excluding Monuments (267–276)), several hundreds, in the Barnwell area specified above, are mostly built in terraces, often of great length, and of two storeys with gault brick walls and slate-covered roofs. The greater part of the area lay in the parish of St. Andrew the Less. The Inclosure Act of 1807 (fn. 2) and the Award of 1811 (fn. 3), by making possible the sale and division of the open fields, resulted in the extensive building development here described. The original award and map (copy in Town Clerk's Office) shows Barnwell as a village with houses bordering the main street E. and W. of the church. Few of these could have antedated the fire of 1731, which destroyed fifty dwellings (Bowtell MSS, Downing College IV/821). Notices in the Cambridge Chronicle confirm that houses were built soon after the inclosure; their position is not exactly determinable but some were beside or near Newmarket Road. New tenements are noted in 1814 near the Theatre, then under construction, and Nos. 32 and 34 are of about this date (see below). The age of the earliest buildings in Fitzroy Street, on the N. towards the E. end, is indicated by the death in 1811 of Augustus Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Grafton, Chancellor of the University. The rapid expansion of the street westward followed the close of the Napoleonic War; its other name, Blücher Row, and that of Wellington Street nearby are themselves historical data. Soon after 1820 Brunswick Place (Monument 267)), now the E. part of Maids' Causeway, and the terraces N. and S. of it were built, filling the area between Cambridge and the Barnwell suburb.
The earlier references to East Road in the Cambridge Chronicle (e.g. 8 May 1818) suggest a residential road of some distinction; the present piecemeal development must be the result in part of parcelling out relatively large private gardens at a rather later date. Architectural continuity obtains only in the long terrace, Nos. 50 to 69, on the S.E. side. Much of New Street was built between 1818 and 1822 (Cambridge Chronicle 26 June 1818, etc.). By 1825 the parish church was found inadequate for the population, which, including New Town, was 4,845, with sixty-seven new houses under construction (ibid 1 July, 26 Aug., 9 Sept. 1825). Five years later, R. G. Baker's map of Cambridge of 1830 shows Prospect Row, Adam and Eve Row and Burleigh Street enclosing the 'Garden of Eden' on the S.W., S.E. and N.E. respectively; behind the first, Brandon Place is rising. N.E. of Burleigh Street Baker shows Gold Street and, across East Road, Staffordshire Street and the adjoining Gas Lane; houses are shown also in Abbey Street.
In the following decade Eden Street was built and Petersfield begun, so too, at the end of the decade, were Broad Street, off East Road, and Melbourne Place, in continuation of Eden Street. After the opening of Christ Church Church in 1839 (Monument (43)), Christchurch Street, James Street and Napier Street were developed.
Most of the streets named above were still receiving additions at the end of the period under review, 1850: the infilling of the former 'Garden of Eden', City Road and its subsidiaries, and the development of the area E. of Zion Chapel (Monument (67)), Bradmore Street for example, were proceeding. But speculative interest was then shifting to other parts of the town, notably to the Mill Road and railway station areas. The extensive development N. of the Newmarket Road in the Abbey Road area took place after 1850.
Architectural Description—Newmarket Road contains E. of Maids' Causeway two relatively stylish houses, Nos. 51 and 83. The first, of 'villa' type, of two storeys with stucco-faced walls and low-pitched roofs, is of the early 19th century; the second, a square block, of two storeys with attics, with gault brick walls and slate-covered mansard roofs, is of c. 1820, with later bay-windows. Nos. 32 and 34 referred to above, of c. 1814, of two storeys with gault brick walls and very low pitched slate-covered roofs, comprise a symmetrical block with elliptical-headed wall-recesses under pedimental gables. E. of the few houses of individual character (Monuments (269, 270, 272 to 275)) near the church of St. Andrew the Less, some of which antedate the fire of 1731, and E. of Godesdone Road-Coldham's Lane is some 'ribbon-development' of c. 1800 and later, mostly of poor type, that extends, with interruptions, to the Barnwell Junction railway bridge.
In New Street, Nos. 18 to 28 (evens) of c. 1820 have a central carriage-entrance, now blocked, under a pediment, timber door-frames with four-centred heads, and openings of the same form to the two-light windows, which have vestigial labels and contain casements with glazing-bars themselves forming four-centred arches (plan p. 365).
Eden Street is lined with lengthy terraces, incomplete on the E., of the fourth decade of the 19th century, with centrepieces and a succession of elliptical-headed doorways alternating with plain sash-hung windows (plan p. 365); the two centrepieces, reminiscent of those in New Square, each have three brick pilasters and a pediment. To E. and S.E. of Eden Street, the slightly earlier terrace Nos. 7 to 36 Prospect Row, originally facing an open space, entirely utilitarian except for a brick dentil-cornice, is relieved from monotony by the boldly projecting timber window-bays of the public-houses at either end. Brandon Place and Adam and Eve Street are devoid of such relief.
Nos. 4–7 Grafton Street of c. 1850 have an exotic arrangement of pilasters and half-pilasters and chamfered openings, the doorways with four-centred timber heads under flat arches, the windows with timber mullioned casements; on the first floor are panels containing stucco blank shields, Renaissance grotesques in oval medallions and wooden crosses flory. Opposite the foregoing, Nos. 37 to 39 are distinguished by elliptical-headed doorways, a carriage-entrance, now blocked, and a timber dentil-cornice.
While occasional deliberate efforts seem to have been made to soften the asperities of the uniform brick terraces, in the simple economy of Brandon Place the minor variations in doorways, from elliptical to square heads, some with timber doorcases, and in window design may be due to vagaries of limited individual choice; some such explanation must also cover the sporadic irregularities in South Street, for instance, where No. 19 is slightly bigger than its neighbours, No. 21 exceptionally set back behind a garden; but the E. end of Fitzroy Street dates from a period, c. 1810, when the technique of wholesale terrace-building was not yet general at this social level. The disorders of Petersfield, overlooking its small park, with variations in height, eaves and parapet-walls, plat-bands and plain wall-surfaces, etc., may owe something to a co-ordinating mind remotely influenced by the Romantic movement.
Nos. 35–39 Broad Street, though of the simplest utilitarian aspect, show an interesting arrangement of semidetached houses with side-entrances behind short screen-walls linking the blocks. Nos. 5a to 19 Napier Street have a similar arrangement. A lay-out designed to reduce the street frontage to a minimum and exploit the hinterland is exemplified by Nos. 13–16 James Street with Nos. 1–4 James Cottages, two parallel ranges with a passage through both that gives access to the front doors of the rear range, which faces away from the street; the front houses have gardens behind, the rear have gardens in front. Nos. 3–9 Portland Place back on the street and front their gardens.
The condition of many of the buildings in the area is poor. Much of the development is ill-planned, even where it is not ill-built. Some parts in the New Street neighbourhood are slums, and Caroline Place and Eden Place are examples of socially bad, if economically interesting, back-to-back houses.
Hills Road
W. side:—
(279) Wanstead House, on the N. side of Union Road, of two and three storeys with cellars, has walls of gault brick and slate-covered roofs. It incorporates fittings from Wanstead House, Essex, which were offered for sale in 1824. On the bankruptcy of Richard Woods, the builder and occupant, in 1826 the 'new-built' house was sold (Cambridge Chronicle 1 Sept.) and a plan of it in that year is in the University Library (MS. plans 174). Shortly afterwards a drawing-room was added on the N.W. and, later in the century, a kitchen range.
The house is notable for the important fittings it contains from Colen Campbell's first major work, Wanstead House, in Essex, which was built between c. 1715 and 1721 for Sir Richard Child, Bt., later Earl Tylney of Castlemaine, and is illustrated in Vitruvius Britannicus (I, pls. 23–26; III, 39, 40).
The street-front is in three bays, the openings being widely spaced in large expanses of brickwork; at the wall-head is an enriched early 18th-century timber modillion-cornice with dentils. The central doorway has an imposing timber door-case, also of the early 18th century, with an eared architrave with carved swags and urns in relief above and flanking attached Corinthian columns with short returns supporting a full entablature with enriched pulvinated frieze and dentilled modillion-cornice (Plate 47). The windows have simple 19th-century architraves and contain double-hung sashes. The rest of the original house has a simple contemporary eaves-cornice and most of the windows are segmental-headed. The later additions are plain.
Inside, all the more elaborate fittings are of the early 18th century. The walls of the entrance-hall and stair-hall are divided into bays by Ionic pilasters supporting trabeations across the ceilings; in the N. wall of the former is a door-case with enriched eared architrave with swags of oak leaves and acorns pendent from volutes below the ears. The Dining-room, N. of the entrance-hall, has the most fittings from Campbell's Wanstead, which are large for the room. They include two timber doorcases with pedimented entablatures with foliated and banded pulvinated friezes and modillion-cornices with all the members enriched; a similarly enriched ceiling cornice; a low panelled dado with carved skirting and rail, the latter with key-ornament; large wall-panels with enriched architraves rising from oval foliated volutes; an elaborately carved white marble fireplace-surround with paired foliated sidescrolls projecting forward and laterally supporting an architrave and pulvinated frieze both interrupted by a central green scagliola panel and by flanking console-brackets supporting an enriched cornice returned over the last; from a different architectural context is the double-eared panel in the overmantel with the head mitred round a shell flanked by swags and surmounted by an enriched cornice, the members being picked out with gilding. The window has an enriched architrave with key-block and shutters containing enriched fielded panels. The room opposite to the S. has an enriched dado and a modillioncornice, an eared fireplace-surround with console-brackets above supporting a dentil-cornice and flanking a frieze carved in bold relief with a female mask and scrolled acanthus foliation and, above, an overmantel similar to that described in the Dining-room and also from a different architectural context. Other rather plainer doorcases on the ground floor are also of the early 18th century, but the Drawing-room has original panelled shutters, of c. 1825, to the windows.
The staircase has 19th-century cut and bracketed strings, risers and treads, an elaborate early 18th-century wrought-iron scroll-work balustrade with sheet-cut foliation and a 19th-century moulded mahogany handrail. On the first floor the N. room has a 19th-century white marble fireplace-surround flanked by contemporary wall-recesses with architraves and simple broken-pedimented cornices. The early 18th-century fireplace-surround (Plate 50) in the S. room is of white marble, with eared architrave, side scrolls, console-brackets supporting a cornice-shelf with the bed-mould carved with acanthusleaves, and an enriched pulvinated frieze interrupted by a faun's mask flanked by foliage scrolls; the cast-iron firegrate decorated with wheat-ears and convolvulus is of the 19th century. Of the latter date are the surround and grate in the room over the Drawing-room; the first is of wood with roundels at the corners, the second of cast-iron with slender shafts at the sides and scrolls and foliage above.
E. side:—
(280) House, on the S. corner of Station Road, part of the premises of Messrs. Rattee and Kett, builders, of two storeys, has walls of red and white brick and slate-covered roofs. The site was bought by Rattee, who founded the business there in 1843. The house was built probably within the decade; the porch is an early addition. It was subsequently extended to the S.E. and has now been divided into flats. The workshops stand to the E. and S.E.
The house is a remarkable example of virtuosity in bizarre pattern and colour composition by a builder (Plate 309).
The free sides show a prodigal use of rustication in white brickwork, the variously shaped panels so formed containing red brickwork in 'herringbone' courses of headers. At the wall-head is a timber cornice with modillions and dentils. The balanced elevations are thrown out of symmetry by two-storey bay-windows; these are three-sided, with moulded brick labels over the ground-floor windows and moulded shafts at the angles of the frames; the double-hung sashes contain narrow marginal panes of coloured glass. The added white brick porch on the N.W. has a round-headed entrance and a shaped gable with stone coping and an urn at the apex. Over the porch is a round-headed window with rustications and key-block. On the main pyramidal roof are polygonal slates and at the apex is a cluster of chimney-stacks rising from a square base with brick brattishing; the stacks have a continuous capping of oversailing brickwork.
Inside, many of the fittings also show an individual eccentricity in design. In the hall are the initials I.R. in plaster. The Drawing-room to the W., with its two bay-windows linked by an alcove in the corner, has a panelled fireplace-surround of wood adorned with rosettes. The staircase has twisted balusters.
Brooklands Avenue
(281) Brooklands, house, on the S. side some 185 yds. from Trumpington Road, of two storeys, has walls of gault brick and slate-covered roofs. The site was bought from James Burleigh by Richard Foster in 1825. Foster's will of 1831 mentions the 'new-built' messuage in which he lived; he died in 1842 and his son Richard inherited (Foster family deeds with Ginn & Co., Cambridge). It is now in Government use.
The house consists of a large rectangular block with semi-octagonal bays the full height of the building near the middle of the N. and S. sides. It has low-pitched roofs with boxed gutters and is generally severely plain. In c. 1900 were added a stone porch on the W. end and a low block, presumably for a billiard-room, on the N.; a new staircase was inserted and the S.W. ground-floor room refitted. The N. side has been altered, the interior sub-divided, and a single-storey officeblock added on the E. in more recent times.
The W. end is symmetrical, in three bays, the middle bay slightly recessed. In the centre is the modern porch; the S. bay has glazed sham windows and a functional chimney-stack flush with the wall-face, the N. bay real windows and a sham chimney-stack. The S. side is divided into unequal bays by breaks in the plane of the wall, and the E. end into three bays, that in the middle pedimented. Inside, the S. room with the window-bay has a fireplace with enriched architrave flanked by columns supporting a dentil-cornice. The panelled overmantel follows the Palladian window design, with attached columns and an enriched cornice surmounted by urns; in the side panels are floral pendants. Other original fittings include elaborated doorcases, and brown and white marble fireplacesurrounds. In the garden, to the E. is a large Greenhouse of c. 1850 and, to the N., a brick-built Coach-house with segmental-headed openings.
Trumpington Road
E. side:—
(282) House, standing in spacious grounds on the S. side of Bateman Street, of two storeys with cellars and attics, has walls of gault brick and slate-covered roofs. It is not shown on R. G. Baker's map of 1830 but must have been built very shortly afterwards. A large semi-octagonal bay was added on the W. and the interior sub-divided late in the same century. Further alterations have been made inside in modern times to provide offices for the Director of the Botanic Garden and for flats.
The house though of composed 'villa' type shows a departure from strict symmetry towards a picturesque composition.
The S., garden, front is asymmetrical with a plat-band at first-floor sill level and a large semicircular bay projecting rather E. of centre. The roofs are comparatively low-pitched, with a widely overhanging timber eaves-cornice and gutters studded with leopards' masks. The bay has french-windows on the ground floor, protected by a flared sheet-metal roof supported on wrought-iron brackets, plain double-hung sash-windows above. The flanking wall-faces are of one bay and three bays respectively. The E. end of the house is gabled, the W. hipped.
Inside, the stairhall is entered from the S. and W. through round-headed arches with panelled pilaster-responds and panelled soffits. The wide curved staircase has straight balusters and a turned newel; the curved enclosing wall contains two semidomed niches. Some of the rooms retain original enriched plaster cornices.
W. side:—
(283) The Leys School, headmaster's house, standing in spacious grounds 83 yds. back from the road and 100 yds. S. of Coe Fen Lane, of two storeys with cellars and attics, has walls of gault brick and slate-covered roofs. The land was enclosed in 1811; the house is traditionally dated 1815, which is possible on stylistic grounds, and shown on R. G. Baker's map of 1830. Subsequently a bay-window has been added on the E. and a large single-storey wing on the N. Later school buildings adjoin on the W. The original house is almost square on plan with a three-sided bay projecting from the W. end of the S. side. It has a stone plinth and a continuous widely projecting eaves-cornice of shallow section on slender shaped brackets. The entrance-front to the E. is symmetrical. It is in three bays with the side bays projecting and pedimented; the latter are connected by a single-storey stone screen across the recessed centre bay. The screen comprises two Doric columns in antis; this, with a flat roof behind the entablature, forms a porch to the entrance-doorway in the recessed wall. The windows all contain double-hung sashes; those on the ground floor open down to the plinth and the taller lower sashes slide up in part into the wall. The original S.W. projecting bay rises the full height of the house. The chimney-stacks have separate round flues linked by their capping.
Inside, many original fittings survive, including plain and enriched plaster cornices. The doorways have panelled architraves with paterae at the corners and panelled doors with extra mouldings applied on the panels. The windows have architraves similar to the foregoing and panelled shutters. The fireplace-surrounds generally are of white or gray marble, panelled or moulded and with roundels at the corners, but one has flanking pilaster-strips containing an incised linear decoration, another a fluted frieze. Segmental barrel-vaulted cellars extend under the whole house. The staircase has bracketed strings, square fluted balusters, a turned newel and a moulded mahogany handrail.
(284) Belvoir Terrace, Nos. 1 to 5 (plan of No. 4 p. 365), opposite the N.W. corner of the Botanic Garden, of three storeys with basements, has walls of gault brick and slate-covered roofs. The five houses were built probably c. 1825 on plots some 63 yds. deep, leaving comparatively large gardens at front and back. A two-storey bay-window has been added to No. 1. Small W. projections that may have existed from the first have been so altered that their original form is not recoverable. The flatness of the front is relieved by vertical recessed panels rising through the two upper floors and demarcating the separate houses; the houses are each of two bays, except No. 5, which extends over a carriage-entrance. The entrance-doorways have round heads with continuous moulded stucco architraves with plain imposts and key-blocks, and fanlights with radial glazing-bars, where these survive. The windows have double-hung sashes, those on the ground floor with slatted shutters. At the eaves is a boxed gutter to roofs of fairly low pitch.
Inside, the houses show a normal terrace-house type of plan, with one room behind another alongside an entrance passage that widens at the expense of the width of the back room to contain a staircase; but they are more spacious than others of the period in Cambridge.
New Town
(285) New Town area is bounded on the N. by Lensfield Road, on the E. by Hills Road, on the S. by the University Botanic Garden, on the W. by Trumpington Road. Excluding the few more important secular buildings here already described (Monuments (101), (251), (279), (282)), it comprises in the main building development of a humble residential character, with two-storey terrace-houses (plans p. 365) with gault brick walls and slate-covered roofs predominating. Exceptions are the few early 19th-century villas built before the general development of the area. Of these by far the most important was Lensfield standing back from Lensfield Road, built by William Wilkins for his own use, which was demolished in 1955 and the site and gardens covered by the huge new University Chemical Laboratory. Panton Hall, a noncomformist chapel, and a brewery both originated before 1850 but retain nothing of the period.
Downing Terrace (Monument (251)) and probably Gothic Cottage (Cambridge Chronicle 2 June 1820, 14 Jan. 1825), now incorporated in the 'Cross Keys' inn (see below), were just finished before the intensive building of New Town, called New Zealand prior to 1822 (ibid 18 May 1822), was begun about 1820, though some houses already existed beside Hills Road (e.g. ibid 12 May, 6 Oct. 1820). Union Road is mentioned in 1821 and Nos. 9–14 George IV Street bear the same date. In 1822 Wilkins sold the W. part of his garden for a terrace, Annesley Place, now part of Panton Street; the terrace in the same street, just S. of Union Road, followed (ibid 19 Aug. 1825) and Nos 42–44 (evens) Panton Street are dated 1851 though in appearance rather earlier. By 1825 Coronation Street, Princes Street, Queen Street had been begun (ibid 11 June 1824, 13 May 1825); R. G. Baker's map of 1830 shows most of the S. side of the first built, Saxon Street behind Downing Terrace and Doric Street off it, and a beginning of the N. end of Gothic Street. Terrace Lane must have been built soon afterwards. Russell Street is first heard of in 1835 under the name of Gwydir Street when an ambitious scheme was announced for development near the 'new Botanic Gardens' (ibid 13 Feb. 1835); a start may have then been made but little was done before the end of the decade and most of the buildings in the street are of 1840 to 1850 and later; Nos. 77–81 are dated 1846, Nos. 84 and 85 1849; Russell Place was built before 1840 (ibid 18 July 1840). Development of the area continued after 1850.
Much of New Town was ill-built, and as early as 1850 the condition of Terrace Lane and Annesley Place was unfavourably commented upon by the Board of Improvement Commissioners (ibid 21 Dec.). The area immediately S. of Saxon Street is now a slum.
Architectural Description—The design of most of the terrace-houses follows something of a standard pattern. It is of two bays, with a doorway and window on the ground floor and two windows symmetrically above; brick dentil-cornices occur and the eaves are continuous across adjoining houses; the fireplaces are in the party-walls and the flues emerge at the ridge in plain rectangular stacks. Those doorways with flat arches usually have fanlights with latticed glazing and shallow hoods; others are round, elliptical or, mostly in poorer building, segmental-headed with stone imposts and fanlights; many have moulded timber doorcases with roundels, panels or paterae at the angles. Where basements occur the main doorway is often approached up stone steps with simple wrought or cast-iron balustrades. Window-openings contain double-hung sashes and have flat or segmental heads; some have a marginal arrangement of glazing. Inside, the houses are two rooms deep, and the doorway leads into a passage, but in some, generally of poorer type, the door opens into the front room. Projections at the back containing the offices are sometimes original; many have been enlarged or added, individually, or wholesale to a uniform plan.
Improvements upon or modification of this standard type are to be found. Nos. 30 and 31 Union Road (plan p. 365) are a three-storey pair with a round-headed wall-arch rising their full height as a dominating feature in the street-front. No. 6, Farcet House, is exceptional, being double-fronted and of individual design, symmetrical, with a timber door-case and high panelled parapet-wall rising well above the adjoining terrace-houses. Nos. 15 to 17 George IV Street are a trio with the ground floor and the cornice and blocking-course stuccofaced, the whole of Greek Doric inspiration, ponderous but well-proportioned. In Panton Street, Nos. 3–11 (odds), formerly Annesley Place, and Nos. 27–41 (odds) have some architectural pretensions, the former with elaboration in the doorcases, the latter with a refreshing if perhaps restless break in the symmetry, the round-headed doorways of adjoining houses being paired and the first-floor windows, regularly spaced from end to end of the terrace, being out of alignment with the ground-floor openings. No. 32 is a very simple double-fronted house of a status slightly different from the foregoing, retaining a modest coach-house in the garden at the back. In Coronation Street, Nos. 36–41 are plain but present a balanced composition of four low terrace-houses flanked by slightly projecting taller gabled houses with shopwindows. Though the houses further from the main through roads are the more featureless, exceptions are Nos. 77–81 and 99–103 Russell Street; here effective use is made of brick panelling and pilasters, combined in the second group with timber features. These last include doorcases with plain strippilasters, rusticated friezes with roundels towards the ends and hood-like cornices, the caps of the colossal pilasters rising the full height of the fronts, and the eaves-cornices.
The 'Cross Keys' in Brookside, 22 yds. from Lensfield Road, incorporates the former Gothic Cottage, a house of c. 1820 with windows and timber cusped decoration below the eaves of the low-pitched W. gable that justify, if they were not the reason for, its name. The windows have four-centred heads and a pattern of frame and glazing of the same form. In mass and silhouette the building is a typical 19th-century villa.
(286) Old Nurseries, house, No. 2 Latham Road, on the N. side at the corner of Trumpington Road, of two storeys, with stucco-faced brick walls and slate-covered roofs, was built in the first half of the 19th century, before 1830, being shown in R. G. Baker's map of that year standing in the corner of the 'Cambridge Nursery'. It seems to have been designed to provide two tenements though very soon made into one, when the W. annexe was added. The E. bay-window is later. The S. side has six original two-light windows with four-centred heads to the openings, to the lights and to the glazing-bars in the casements; two other ground-floor windows and the doorway are modern insertions. The roof is hipped at both ends and the central chimney-stack rises at the ridge. In the annexe are windows with pointed heads to match those in the main house.
The inside is much modernised but retains an original moulded fireplace-surround of wood with bosses at the angles. In each half of the house and in the annexe is a staircase rising steeply in a small enclosed space. On two of the window-panes are scratched the name and date Brewer 1839. Between 1830 and 1840 Brewer, nurseryman, was advertising and in 1832 opened a bulb shop in St. John's Street (Cambridge Chronicle 26 Oct. 1832).
Newnham
(287) Newnham Grange, on the S.E. side of Silver Street, 140 yds. S.W. of Silver Street Bridge, of two storeys with cellars, has walls of gault brick with stone dressings and tile-covered roofs. The house was built early in the 19th century, before 1830, for the Beale family, corn and coal merchants, and included a large irregularly-shaped yard to the E. largely surrounded by stables, offices, coal-stores and granaries. The property was bought by the Darwins in the last quarter of the 19th century and a plan and elevation as it was in 1885 are in the possession of Sir Charles Darwin. Some outbuildings were then removed, the projecting N. wall of the stables adjoining on the E. was rebuilt in line with the front wall of the house and to the remodelled E. gable was added an aedicule framing the date, 1885. In the last decade of the century large bay-windows were added on the N. and S. sides of the house, other outbuildings were demolished and the remainder, at the E. end of the yard, were reconstructed. These last now form a separate house, the Old Granary.
Newnham Grange is an early 19th-century house of gracious aspect containing fittings of the period.
The N. front is in five bays with the two flanking bays on each side slightly advanced, leaving a recessed middle bay and very short lateral returns; against these last the stone platbands at first-floor and eaves level stop. It has a low parapetwall with a stone capping, which is continued up the slopes of the E. and W. gable-ends of the house. The doorway in the centre is in a semicircular arch of two orders of gauged brickwork with plain stone imposts. The door is of six panels, with a fanlight with radial glazing-bars above the moulded lintel-rail. The three-sided bays projecting symmetrically to each side are both late 19th-century additions. The five first-floor windows contain double-hung sashes. The E. end is masked by a return of the outbuildings, remodelled and containing the kitchens, etc.; it is of two storeys with a hipped roof and has a walk on the ground floor behind an open screen of Roman Doric columns; in the roof are two gabled dormer-windows each of two lights with two-centred heads and glazing-bars. The W. end has wall-recesses, original and modern windows and, in the middle, a tall round-headed staircase-window with stone imposts. The S. side has two added bay-windows on the ground floor, the one to the W. being built within part of an early 19th-century verandah with flared metal roof. Symmetrical on the first floor are three original windows; those to the sides are double the width of the other, with segmental heads and containing tripartite sashhung timber frames.
Inside, the main house-block is nearly square on plan. The entrance-hall and stairhall have a T-shaped arrangement, the latter extending centrally across the full width of the house, and with the principal stair at the W. end, the service stair at the E.; the square bay at the junction has round-headed archways on the E., N. and W., a blind arch of similar form on the S., and a groined plaster vault. The archways have pilasterresponds and moulded archivolts. One of the doorways has a pedimented entablature, with a frieze containing ovals, garlands and swags. The ground-floor rooms retain original cornices, that in the S.W. room elaborated with acanthus foliation. Also in the S.W. room is a moulded architrave to the doorway with roundels at the angles and, moved from the first floor, an original fireplace-surround of wood with green marble slips, with Ionic side-pilasters supporting an entablature with central frieze-panel and stylised cornice all enriched with delicate decoration of leaves, swags, an urn, writing trophies and paterae. In the N.W. room the fireplace has an original white marble reeded surround with foliated roundels at the angles; this room and that to the N.E. retain reset in the late 19th-century bays the sashes and panelled linings of the four windows originally here. Another original reeded marble fireplace-surround remains in the S.E. room.
The staircase has cut and plainly bracketed strings, slender square iron balusters and a square moulded iron newel under a spiral-return of the moulded handrail; this last is of mahogany. The cellars under the main house are barrel-vaulted. On the first floor the openings to the stairwell and landing are generally similar to those in the hall below. Most of the fittings, dadoes, doorcases and cornices are original, and also five of the fireplace-surrounds; these last are of wood, with elegant enrichments of foliage pendants, swags, urns, ovals, and roundels containing stylised foliage, honeysuckleornament, etc. A reeded surround in the N.W. room is probably modern.
The Old Granary, though remodelled to form a separate house, incorporates the fabric of the original business offices, with an upper storey added, and the E. block of the store buildings; the rest of the granary was demolished. The N. wall of the offices has small rectangular windows, those on the ground floor in two round-headed wall-arches with stone imposts, those above in the blocking of two larger windows. Across the W. wall is a plat-band with modern openings below and a round-headed arch and a segmental-headed recess above. The E. side is much altered; three blocked windows are visible on the first floor.
The Old Granary, see Monument (287).
(288) Newnham Cottage, house, on the W. side of Queens' Road 87 yds. S. of West Road, is of two storeys with gault brick walls and slate-covered roofs. The site, part of Butcher's Close, was let on a building lease to William Wilkins sen. (1751–1815) by Gonville and Caius College in c. 1800 (E. J. Gross in J. Venn, Biog. Hist. of Gonville and Caius College, IV, pt. 2, 27). The house, so far as it remains unaltered, does not entirely agree in shape with the house shown on the Inclosure Award map of 1804, but in 1816 and 1836 it was advertised for sale and on the second occasion described as 'erected about thirty years since by the late William Wilkins' (Camb. Chronicle 27 May, 3 June, 1836). The present N.E. wing replaces a narrower wing pulled down c. 1900; the N.W. wing is later again. Lesser additions include a covered way extending to the road, and a mid 19th-century glazed cast-iron verandah on the S. The covered way existed in 1836 but the entrance to it was rebuilt and the timber balustrading and supports on the open S. side were renewed late in the 19th century.
Newnham Cottage is an 'Italian villa' type of house that demonstrates a successful synthesis of rational values and the neo-Classical style.
The S. front has the middle part recessed 1½ ft. though the eaves-cornice is continued straight across from the side bays. On the ground floor are five french-windows, that in the centre an insertion; on the first floor are four casement-windows, two in the recess, one in each side bay. To the E. are two small additions. On the W. is a small projection, probably an addition, described as an 'oriel' in 1816, with S. and W. windows, the last converted from a doorway.
Inside on the ground floor are three main rooms facing S. to the garden: a study to the E., a central room and a W. room of greater depth than the foregoing and crossed by a trabeation supported on pilasters with enriched caps. Leading from the last room, the 'oriel' has a ribbed quadripartite two-centred plaster vault springing from foliated corbels in the angles and with foliage bosses; the S. window has plaster shafted splays and a moulded rear-arch; in 1816 it was 'glazed with ancient stained glass'. The plain staircase has cut strings and slender balusters with a mahogany handrail. The 1816 advertisement says the building was 'erected under the immediate direction of Mr. Wilkins for his own residence, whose taste and judgement in architecture have made it combine all the conveniences and advantages to be expected from the possession of such abilities' (Camb. Chronicle 5 Jan.). It may be added that it possessed 'two water-closets, one on each floor, and a hot bath'. The fines on renewal of the lease of the property and the rents charged up to 1907 are set out in the Sectional Preface p. xcvi.
(289) Newnham House, on the W. side of Newnham Road, just N. of Malting Lane, opposite the Mill Pit, of two storeys with gault brick walls and low-pitched slated roofs, was built c. 1820. It was L-shaped on plan, with S. and W. wings; a range of outbuildings stood N. and S. further W. Late in the 19th and in the present century the house was extended to include the outbuildings, which were remodelled to provide extra living-accommodation. It is now a hostel of Corpus Christi College. The E. side is of five bays; the three in the middle are divided by plain brick pilaster-strips. The flanking bays projected slightly and contained ground-floor windows set in segmental-headed wall-arches, but only the N. bay remains unaltered. The continuous widely overhanging eaves-cornice has a plastered soffit. The severe N. front has plain fenestration and an entrance doorway in the second of the five bays with semicircular head and fanlight. The other sides are largely masked.
Inside, rooms have been sub-divided. Original simple cornices and a panelled dado remain. One original panelled fireplace-surround has roundels at the angles. The staircase has cut strings, slender turned balusters and turned newels; on the W. containing-wall is a semicircular-headed panel with fluted pilasters supporting a moulded archivolt with a key-block.
(290) Little Newnham and Frostlake Cottage, house, opposite the foregoing Monument (289), to the S., of two storeys, has brick walls and slate and tile-covered roofs. It occupies the W. end of a range of buildings along the S. side of Malting Lane of 18th-century origin but very much altered, comprising houses, cottages, maltings, oast-houses and stables; Malting House at the E. end has been so extensively remodelled that it is virtually a modern building. The house was built early in the 19th century, enlarged later in the first half of the same century, and subsequently divided into two tenements: Little Newnham to the W., Frostlake Cottage to the E., the latter incorporating a lower range of early 18th-century buildings on the E., probably originally stables, for the kitchen, etc.
The house is not of particular architectural note but the original windows have high four-centred heads with interlacing glazing-bars in the double-hung sashes; several of the frames and sashes have been reset in the later 19th-century addition along the W. side of the building. A large bay-window has been added on the E.
Inside Little Newnham one pointed window remains in situ in the wall, originally the outside wall, between the Drawing-room and Study and four blocked openings of similar form are visible in the same wall on the floor above. The 19th-century staircase has slender turned balusters. The rooms have 19th-century plaster cornices, and one on the first floor contains a cast-iron grate of the same age with foliage decoration. In Frostlake Cottage the 19th-century staircase has turned newels and slender square balusters.
(291) Croft Lodge, on the S. side of Barton Road, 237 yds. from the corner of Newnham Road, of two storeys with basement, with gault brick walls and slate-covered roofs, was built c. 1822 (Cambridge Chronicle 16 April 1824). It is almost square on plan. The E. front is symmetrical, in three widely spaced bays, with an open porch in the middle composed of freestanding Doric columns and pilasters of Ketton stone supporting a simplified entablature of timber with wrought-iron railings above forming a balcony before a french-window on the first floor. The flanking ground-floor windows are set in segmental-headed wall-arches and open on small balconies with wrought-iron scroll-work balustrading. The flanking first-floor windows have similar ironwork guards. The eaves have a wide overhang and the roofs are of low pitch. The N. and S. ends are almost wholly blind. The W. side has three wall-arches on the ground floor, similar to those described above, containing a central doorway and french-windows, the latter also with scroll-work balconies; the windows above have guards of similar design. All the larger windows contain casements opening in two leaves and with a marginal arrangement of panes.
Inside, some original fittings remain, including plaster cornices, two white marble fireplace-surrounds, doors and doorcases. The second are moulded and with roundels at the angles. The original staircase has cut strings, slender square balusters and a moulded mahogany handrail ending at the foot in a spiral over a slender shaped newel. On the first floor the division between landing and stair-well is marked by an archway with segmental head, square responds and moulded imposts; the plaster cornice to the stair-well is boldly enriched.
(292) Merton Hall or the School of Pythagoras, house, stands well back from the junction of Queens' Road with Madingley Road and Northampton Street, 110 yds. N.W. of the New Court of St. John's College. It is the property of Merton College, Oxford. The building is L-shaped and so orientated that the external angle points due S.; in accordance with the precedent of a contract of 1374, in the following account the wings are described as if extending due E. and due N. The E. wing and a short return of the N. wing are of two storeys, the latter with an attic, with walls of clunch and other rubble, much decayed and patched with brickwork, and Barnack stone dressings. The rest of the N. wing is of two storeys with attics, with timber-framed and brick walls. All the roofs are tiled.
In 1271 Richard Dunning conveyed the house to Merton College and in deeds of 1270 relating to the transfer it is described as the stone house in which Eustace, father of Richard Dunning, formerly dwelt (Merton Records nos. 1556, 1574). It consisted of a Hall raised on a vaulted Undercroft, comprising the present E. wing of c. 1200; the hall fireplace being well to the E. suggests, on the analogy of Boothby Pagnell Manor, Lincolnshire, that space for a solar was left at the W. end, but the architectural evidence, so far as it is ascertainable in the present damaged state of the stonework, shows that the N.W. return is also an original feature. In the following account the last is called, without prejudice, the Solar Wing. In 1374 an agreement was made with Adam Mathie and John Meppushal, masons, to rebuild the W. wall and a length of 18 ft. of the S. wall from the foundations to the height of the old walls, to build four buttresses, two being at the angles and two according to the usage and discretions of masons, and to rebuild the broken vault, the door ('hostium') under the vault and the steps leading up to the hall ('aula'), all in the sum of £30 13s. 4d. (Merton Records No. 1639). The stone house was in disrepair in the 16th century and suffered much destruction in the 18th and 19th centuries. The piers and vault of the undercroft have been almost entirely destroyed and the hipped roof of the hall is of the 19th century.
The North Wing, in extension of the Solar wing, was built in the 16th century and lengthened in the second half of the following century. The interior has been altered and modernised and the plaster stripped from the outside of the 16th-century walls to reveal the timbers.
Merton Hall of c. 1200 though much damaged and in part rebuilt is important as one of the few domestic buildings of so early a period surviving in this country. Only about a dozen houses of the kind remain in town and country, all more or less altered. (See also Sectional Preface, p. xc.)
Architectural Description—The main block of the early stone house is rectangular on plan. Outside, it has a moulded string across the free faces, except on the E., original two-stage angle pilaster-buttresses on the N.E. and S.E. corners, 14th-century three-stage buttresses towards the W., all stopping just below the eaves, and original single-stage pilaster-buttresses, the height of the undercroft only, along the N. and S. walls, except where destroyed on the N. and rebuilt in c. 1375 on the S.; the rebuilt S. buttress is similar to its contemporaries on the W. The surrounding ground-level has risen 3 ft. to 4 ft. concealing any plinths that may have existed.
The N. wall is in four free bays. The walling of most of the fourth bay has been removed from ground to eaves and a thin rubble wall and weather-boarding substituted; the rest is covered by a modern addition. To the lower storey in the first bay is a modern doorway with, some 1½ ft. to the W., indications of the W. jamb of a blocked opening possibly of the late 15th century, or later, with a short horizontal return of the head; the rear-arch of the last is traceable. In the second bay is a doorway with original jambs and chamfered segmental head, the last perhaps rebuilt; it rises only some 3½ ft. above present ground-level. In the third bay is a 15th-century window of two cinque-foiled lights with a quatrefoil in a four-centred head with a restored label. To the upper storey, over the E. bay is a short lancet window with patched chamfered jambs. Over the second bay is an original two-light window similar to that opposite, described below with the S. wall, but more damaged, the mullion being replaced by a post, the head, bereft of the outer order, extending into a large 19th-century brickwork patching, and the shafts of the shafted splays inside removed.
The E. wall is much refaced and rebuilt, except the buttresses, from first-floor level upward; only a short length of the return of the first-floor string remains, against the S. buttress. The lower part of the N. half has been faced with 19th-century brickwork, but, inside, the rear-arch of a blocked loop appears. In the S. half is a blocked 15th-century doorway with four-centred head. Just N. of the doorway, at springing-level, is an impost-moulding to the stone springer of a destroyed arch projecting at right angles from the wall. On the floor above, at the N. end, is a doorway, now blocked, with some original N. dressings but, for the rest, rebuilt and altered in form.
The S. wall (Plate 296) is original in the five E. bays and of c. 1374 in the W. bay. In the lower storey it has in the E. bay a doorway of c. 1800 with brick jambs and stone two-centred head, and in the second, fourth and fifth bays original rectangular chamfered loops with segmental rear-arches. In c. 1800 the whole of the walling to this storey in the third bay was removed and the opening spanned by a segmental arch and fitted with a glazed screen incorporating a doorway and windows all with two-centred heads to the timber frames. In the upper storey, over the second bay is an original though much decayed clunch window of two trefoiled lights divided by a shafted mullion with cap and base, with a small pierced recurved quatrefoil in the spandrel and all within a slight recess with semicircular head forming an outer order; the semi-circular rear-arch sprang from shafted splays with capitals carved with stiff-leaf foliage and moulded bases, but the shafts have been destroyed. Corbelled out over the third bay and interrupting the string is a shallow ashlar pilaster-like projection containing the flue from the fireplace in the hall: it is much patched with tiles and now stops at the eaves. The walling over the fourth bay has been refaced in brick and contains an 18th-century window. In the W. bay is a late 14th-century window of two trefoiled lights in a square head; the mullion has gone and the rebuilt wall above is carried on a modern timber lintel.
The W. end of c. 1374 is in two bays divided and flanked by buttresses, the S.W. buttress being diagonal. The lower walling of the N. bay has been removed and a glazed timber screen containing a doorway and windows set flush with the front of the buttresses. In the S. bay is a modern window cutting through the brick segmental head of an 18th-century blocked opening. To the upper storey in the N. bay is a small late 14th-century rectangular window with chamfered dressings and altered head with four-centred chamfered rear-arch.
Inside the E. wing the former Undercroft is divided by later partitions; of the original wall-shafts and five freestanding columns down the middle that supported quadripartite vaulting, only the vaulting-shafts in the N.E. and S.E. angles, with mutilated caps and three-sided abaci, survive. All the rest have been destroyed since the middle of the 18th century, though a rise in floor-level may conceal ancient bases.
The former Hall (62¾ ft. by 23¼ ft.) on the upper floor is undivided and open to the modern roof; the modern timber floor is some 2 ft. below the original floor-level. A continuous moulded string at sill-level is almost entirely destroyed. In the S. wall the relieving-arch and some dressings of the original fireplace, now blocked, survive; corbel-stones, now hacked flush with the wall, show that it had a hood. Towards the W. end of the N. wall are traces of an original doorway with semicircular head and S. label; it is blocked and in the blocking is a 15th-century stone doorway with stop-chamfered jambs and four-centred head; some 8 ft. to the E. is a rectangular locker, also blocked.
The Solar wing has a 14th-century buttress on the N.W.; for the rest, the rubble walling where exposed has been refaced. No original features survive in the lower storey; most of the N. and W. walls at this level have been removed, and modern additions conceal the E. wall; this last has a blocked 16th-century brick doorway at the S. end. On the first floor in the N. wall is an original window with semicircular head, wide splays and semicircular rear-arch; though blocked by the 16th-century additions beyond, it is open to the S. and has chamfered and rebated reveals. A similar window is said to be in the E. wall (J. M. Gray, The School of Pythagoras etc. (1932), C.A.S. 4to. series N.S. IV, 33) though now entirely concealed and represented only by a recess inside and a blocking outside. In the W. wall is a 14th-century locker with square rebated jambs and two-centred head. This wing is now partitioned and contains a modern staircase.
The rest of the North Wing (Plate 306) is of the 16th century for about half the length, to where the exposed timber-framing on the W. ends and the roof-height changes. The 17th-century extension is of brick and timber-framing and has two large 18th-century sloping buttresses against the N. end. The W. front has at the S. end two gabled bays jettied at the first floor. The southernmost bay has the ends of the projecting joists exposed and small curved brackets at each end, that to the S. having been renewed. The second gabled projection is modern. All the timber studs are closely spaced. The windows throughout and in the 17th-century extension to the N. are comparatively modern; on the roof are five 18th or 19th-century dormer-windows. The E. side of the 16th-century building, partly concealed by modern additions, is pargeted in two heights of rectangular panels and has the S. bay projecting at the first floor and gabled. Two doorways, the southernmost blocked, have 18th-century timber cases with panelled pilasters and entablatures. The 17th-century brick N. end of the wing has two plat-bands between the buttresses and a shaped gable surmounted by a rectangular chimney-stack.
Inside the N. wing, the party-wall between the 16th and 17th-century buildings has been removed. On the ground floor are exposed chamfered and stop-chamfered ceiling-beams, the Dining-room ceiling being cambered, and two old fireplaces, restored. On the first floor are exposed posts and beams and an early 17th-century door panelled on the face and of planks on the back. The E. to W. framing of part of the roof exposed in the first-floor room in the S. end bay retains two wind-braces; in the same room is an original fireplace with timber stop-chamfered bressumer.
Queens' Road
E. side:—
(293) Merton House, 27 yds. S. of the junction with Madingley Road, of two storeys with basements and attics, has walls of gault brick and slate-covered roofs. It was built by Professor the Rev. W. Farish, vicar of St. Giles, and, on stylistic grounds, early in the 19th century. Though said to have been built in 1790 (C.A.S. 4to N.S. IV (1932), 19), it does not appear on the Inclosure Award map of 1804. The N.W. and S.E. sides are each symmetrical; the ends are gabled; the first has a plat-band at first-floor level and a simple timber eaves-cornice, a doorway in the middle and a tall window above, both with round heads. The flanking windows have slatted shutters. The S.E. side has a timber cornice and shuttered windows similar to those described on the N.W.
Inside, many of the fittings are original, including marble fireplaces with paterae at the corners, doors and doorcases, skirtings and plaster cornices. Between two of the ground-floor rooms is a large door raised by pulleys. The original staircase has a mahogany string and moulded handrail, turned newel and slender square balusters. The first-floor landing has round-headed archways to the passages to N.E. and S.W.
(294) Merton Cottage, 25 yds. S.W. of the foregoing, of two storeys, has gault brick walls and slate-covered roofs. It was described in 1823 as a modern house (Cambridge Chronicle 3 Jan.). Soon after 1850 a N. extension was made and later again two-storey bay-windows were added on the W. The original building has a brick plinth and a high parapet-wall with flat stone coping. The W. front was symmetrical, with a wall-arcade of three bays, rising through the two storeys and embracing the ground and first-floor openings; the arches had segmental heads and stone imposts level with the top of the upper windows. Only the middle bay remains unaltered though most of the imposts and the segmental heads of the flanking arches survive behind the two added bay-windows. The entrance-doorway in the middle is protected by an open trelliswork porch. On the E. also the windows are embraced in tall wall-recesses but here with square heads, creating a pilaster-like effect. The inside has been modernised.
Mill Road
(295) The Limes, house, standing back on the N.E. side, 100 yds. E. of Kingston Street, of two storeys, with walls of gault brick with stone dressings and slate-covered roofs, is dated 1846 on a stone panel in the S. gable-end. It is of some interest as an early example of the lofty, irregularly-planned house of indeterminate Gothic inspiration that was soon to appear in great numbers in suburban development in most parts of the country. The tall gabled projections, asymmetrical on the S. and N. sides, have stone quoins and elaborate bargeboards to the steeply pitched roofs. The open timber porch has similar bargeboards and pointed openings. The windows have chamfered stone jambs and flat heads, some with moulded labels; the marginal pattern of panes in the glazing are the sole link with earlier 19th-century fashion of less stylistic pedantry. Inside, the doorway to the stairhall is flanked by Gothic niches with mirror-glass in the backs.
Cherry Hinton
(296) Cherry Hinton Hall, nearly ¾ m. S.W. of the parish church, of two storeys with cellars, has gault brick walls with stone dressings and slate-covered roofs. It was built for John Okes and the title to the property begins with the purchase of plots of land in 1834 (University Library, Map Room: sale advertisement, 1870). Scratched on the roof-lead is the date 1839, to which the house would approximate on stylistic grounds. Late in the same century a billiard room was added on the W. Since 1948 it has been converted into a day-nursery and clinic involving alterations and additions inside and out. The coach-house and stabling standing nearby to the N.W. have been drastically remodelled to provide living-quarters. The Lodge some 210 yds. to the S.W. is contemporary with the house.
Cherry Hinton Hall is a large and rather bald building of the first half of the 19th century in the late Tudor style.
The elevations generally have moulded strings at first-floor sill and eaves levels, tall parapet-walls carried up in gablets with moulded copings and apex-finials and stone-mullioned windows of one, two and three square-headed lights with labels; the ground-floor windows are transomed. The S. front is asymmetrical on plan and in height, the porch and the E. part being slightly higher than the rest westward. The doorway has continuously moulded jambs and four-centred head. The rectangular bay-window towards the W. end is an early addition. On the N. side is a four-light transomed window lighting the original staircase; to the kitchen is another of five lights on the W. side. The lights in several windows have been cut down for doorways and french-windows, others retain the original glazing of lozenge-shaped quarries. The chimneystacks have separate octagonal shafts with oversailing brick cappings.
Inside, the staircase in the entrance-hall is a modern insertion involving the blocking of the four-centred archways in the N. and W. walls. The principal rooms have doorways with architraves and six-panel doors all with roll-mouldings; another period allusion is the heavy moulding of the plastercornices. The E. part of the house retains two original fireplacesurrounds of gray polished stone, with moulded jambs and four-centred arches, sunk spandrels and moulded shelves; they are flanked, one by pilaster-like responds with roll-moulded angles and moulded caps, the other by octagonal projections with trefoil-headed sunk panels in the faces. The main staircase has close moulded strings, grip handrails, square panelled newels and pierced strapwork balustrading of gilded woodwork. The back staircase has cut strings, a turned newel and slender square balusters.
The Lodge, of one storey, with gault brick walls with stone dressings and tile-covered roofs, of uniform character with the house, has been much enlarged. It has large gables, and a smaller gable to the porch, all with moulded stone copings rising from corbelled kneelers. The windows have stone mullions and the tall chimney-stacks octagonal shafts.
(297) Red Lion Inn, near the corner of High Street and Millend Road, ¼ m. E. of Monument (296), of two storeys, has walls of plastered timber-framing and tile-covered roofs. It consists of a main range with a slightly lower wing across the western end, all of the 16th century. If an E. cross wing ever existed it has left no trace; an 18th-century brick addition is now in this position. More modern additions are on the back towards both ends, and on the wing, the last involving the removal of the front wall on the ground floor, though without destroying the evidence for the original projection of the first floor. The doors and windows are modern. The main chimney-stack at the E. end of the range is of 18th-century brickwork; the stack in the wing is of modern brick.
Inside, the main range has a longitudinal chamfered ceiling-beam stopped at the W. end where supported on an inserted brick wall. The structural framing visible on the upper floor is of heavy scantling, with enlarged heads to the wall-posts. The roof is not accessible.
(298) House, No. 75 High Street, 122 yds. N.N.E. of Monument (297), of two storeys, with red brick walls and tile-covered roofs, was built early in the 18th century and is now two tenements. It is a rectangular building, with gabled ends containing the chimney-stacks. The street-front is symmetrical with a plat-band at first-floor level, plain eaves, a central doorway, a window with rubbed brick flat arch to each side, three windows above, and two gabled dormer-windows. The door opens on a lobby and staircase flanked by living-rooms. Longitudinal axial ceiling-beams are exposed. In the N. room are remnants of a panelled dado.
(299) House, No. 81 High Street, 23 yds. N.N.E. of the foregoing, is a rectangular timber-framed and plastered 17th-century building of one storey with attics. Two gabled dormer-windows rise off the S. wall. The two rooms are divided by a large internal chimney-stack with diagonal clustered shafts of thin yellowish bricks. The stair is in the S.W. angle of the house. In the S. wall is a clunch panel inscribed 'July 25 1.17'.
(300) Hall Farm, house, 15 yds. N.N.E. of the foregoing and 660 yds. S.S.W. of the parish church, comprises a late 17th-century two-storey wing extending S. from an early 18th-century E. to W. range of one storey; the latter has a modern S. extension further towards the W. The walls are of red brick, the roofs tile-covered. The wing has a moulded brick plinth, a plat-band at first-floor level and moulded kneelers to the S. gable; the chimney-stack at the gable-apex is largely rebuilt. The range has a plat-band across the E. gable-end and, on the N., a course of diagonal brickwork below the eaves; the central chimney-stack has conjoined diagonal shafts. The window-openings here have segmental heads, those and the doorways in the wing having been renewed.
(301) Glebe Cottages, house, now three tenements, Nos. 232–236 High Street, 170 yds. S.S.E. of the parish church, of two storeys, have timber-framed walls faced in the 19th century with gault brick. It was built probably in the 16th century; in the mid 19th century a two-storey range was added along the E. side. The outside was remodelled when refaced; the only earlier feature unaltered is the central chimney-stack, some 8 ft. by 6 ft. at first-floor level, of thin dark red bricks. The stack against the N. end wall is of the 19th century.
Inside are chamfered and stop-chamfered ceiling-beams exposed on the ground floor and wall-posts with enlarged heads on the first floor. In the middle tenement a steeply cambered tie-beam passes close in front of the stack and the fireplace in the same room has a stop-chamfered timber lintel, only slightly cambered.
(302) Uphall, 173 yds. N. of the parish church, of two storeys with timber-framed and gault brick walls and slate-covered roofs, consists of a long range of different dates bordering the road. A 16th-century timber-framed house with central chimney-stack was encased in brick, heightened and extended N. and S. in c. 1830, the S. extension nearly doubling the size of the earlier building and being given architectural predominance. In the 19th century, and since, the N. extension was much enlarged. The outside is now of early 19th-century character, with double-hung sash-windows and low-pitched roofs with widely overhanging eaves on shaped brackets. The doorway in the S. extension and a french-window at the S. end have side-pilasters supporting flat hoods with panelled soffits.
Inside, the timber-framing of the original house is exposed, including stop-chamfered ceiling-beams and the wall-plates, these last now some feet below the eaves; the building was of three bays, that in the middle narrow and containing the stack with a flanking staircase. In the Drawing-room is an early 19th-century circular cast-iron grate simulating a sea-shell, with original ashpan and modelled shells and scrolls in the spandrels; it is set in a contemporary moulded stone surround with roundels at the angles and a plain cornice-shelf. A similar grate at Great Hundridge was cast at Berkhamsted in 1827 (Country Life 15 Feb., 5 April 1941); a number survive throughout the country.
A small outbuilding close N.E., now cased in gault brick, has timber-framed walls and a tie-beam roof with curved braces between the wall-posts and ties and a ridge-piece.
(303) House, No. 146 Rosemary Lane, 400 yds. N. by W. of the parish church, of two storeys with attics, has walls of timber-framing, with the ground floor under-built in modern brick, and tile covered roofs. It is a small building of the early 18th century with a central chimney-stack flanked on one side by the entrance, on the other, until removed during recent alterations, by a stair. On the N.W. is a modern addition. During renovation in 1949 the fabric was stripped down to the framing and the latter seen to be of slight scantling, mostly sawn, with sills, studs interrupted by diagonal braces, and head-rails supporting a simple roof-structure, this last with rafters, purlins two-thirds up the slopes supported on collar-beams, and a ridge-piece. On the timber lintel of the fireplace in the E. ground-floor room are the initials and date W M 1708.
(304) Mafeking Cottage, 47 yds. N. of the foregoing, of two storeys, has timber-framed walls faced with modern rendering and thatched roofs. The S.W. half with a projecting first floor is of the 16th century; the N.E. half may be a slightly later addition; the two were once separate dwellings. A 19th-century cottage adjoins on the S.W. The building has chimneystacks in the end walls, one off-centre, flanked by stairs. No original doorways or windows survive. Inside are chamfered ceiling-beams on the ground floor and exposed wall-posts with enlarged heads on the upper floor. Two of the doors are old, one of planks, the other incorporating panelling of c. 1600. Two early 19th-century Outbuildings have walls built of a single thickness of clay bats, 18 × 11 × 6 ins. with 1½-in. joints, incorporating chopped reed; the outside rendering of lime-wash has largely gone.
Chesterton
(305) Chesterton Tower (Plate 296), house, standing in the Vicarage garden 177 yds. N. of the parish church, is of two storeys with walls of rubble patched with brick and with clunch and Ketton stone ashlar dressings; the roofs are tile-covered. It was built about the middle of the 14th century probably for the procurator of the abbot of Vercelli (see Sectional Preface, p. lxviii). The circumstances of the gift of the church of St. Andrew, Chesterton, to the church of St. Andrew, Vercelli, are described above (Monument (60)); in 1440 the appropriation was granted to King's Hall and this last was subsequently merged in Henry VIII's foundation of Trinity College, to which Chesterton Tower belongs. (C.A.S. Proc. XIII (1909), 185.) From time to time the building has been repaired, but in 1949 a restoration was made with the advice of the Ministry of Works involving the renewal of nearly all the decayed dressed clunch in Ketton stone, some in a form that has destroyed archaeological evidence.
The Tower is a rare survival of a dwelling for the representative in England of a foreign appropriator and of much architectural interest despite the recent restoration. (See also Sectional Preface, p. xc.)
Architectural Description—The building is rectangular on plan with the entrance in the N.E. side, and octagonal turrets and a rectangular garderobe projecting on the N., W. and S. angles respectively; the N. turret contained a circular stair. The shallow projection by the E. angle contained the fireplaces. The roof is half-hipped and has plain eaves, the turrets rising some 2 ft. to 3 ft. above them. On the N.E., the entrance has chamfered jambs and a two-centred head; further S.E. is a loop-light; above the former is a comparatively modern blocked opening, and further S.E. an original but mutilated trefoiled light in a two-centred head. Modern renewals include the quoins at the E. angle from 6½ ft. above ground upward and rubble patching above the doorway. The N.W. side has on the ground floor two windows each of two cinque-foiled lights with a quatrefoil in a two-centred head with a label, both almost completely renewed in the 19th century; below the S.W. jamb of the more northerly is a small loop-light. On the floor above is the blocking of a modern doorway cut through a former opening, of which the S.W. splay survives, and further S.W. a small blocked light.
The N. stair-turret has a chamfered plinth, modern quoins from about 7 ft. above ground level upwards, and two looplights now with surrounds of reset bricks. The W. turret has a chamfered plinth and a corbel-table supporting the projecting first floor; this last contained in each face the remains of a window of two trefoiled lights with a two-centred rear-arch, three of which were blocked and all more or less defaced, but all excepting one rear-arch were obliterated in the recent restoration when the upper stage was largely rebuilt with reused bricks; most of the quoins and corbel-table were also renewed, the quoins being bonded in the usual manner where the original quoins stopped short to leave space for the window-dressings.
The S.W. end has on the ground floor a window of two cinque-foiled lights with a quatrefoil in a two-centred head with a label; below is a blocking where the window was once cut down to form a door; on the floor above is a window of two trefoiled lights; both windows are entirely renewed outside. The garderobe structure has a weathered offset and stands as high as the eaves; nearly all the dressings have been renewed, those below the weathering being brought to a right angle where previously was a broad chamfer, and the upper courses rebuilt. On the S.E. side, the projection of the chimney-stack long since truncated at the eaves, is in two stages with two weathered offsets at the sides; the outer face was rebuilt, the lower part in rubble, the upper part in brick, prior to the 1949 restoration, and appears originally to have projected further. Between it and the garderobe is a window on each floor and a loop-light low down; the ground-floor window is similar to that opposite and as much restored; the upper window of two trefoiled lights is blocked and remains unrestored and much weathered. Most of the windows described above retain their original inner splays and segmental-pointed rear-arches.
Inside, single rooms (26 ft. by 15¾ ft. and 27½ ft. by 17¼ ft.) occupy the two floors of the main block. The W. turret provides a small circular closet off the hall on the ground floor and an octagonal chamber off the room above. The garderobe is entered from the first floor. The ground-floor room is covered by an original stone vault (Plate 297) in two equal bays with hollow-chamfered cross, diagonal, intermediate and ridge ribs with bosses at their intersections, except at the centre where the ribs mitre round a small open circle. The ridge-rib is horizontal from end to end. The bosses are carved as follows: N.E. bay (middle) defaced, (intermediate, a) foliated, (b, c) man's face, (d) hooded man's face; S.W. bay (middle) lion's mask, (a) bearded man's face, (b) grotesque face, (c) stylised flowers, (d) hooded man's face. The fireplace in the S.E. wall has a shouldered lintel but only a fragment remains; the opening has been heightened and has a chamfered segmental-pointed head. The doorway to the N. turret has chamfered jambs and two-centred head. None of the original steps of the vice survives. The closet in the W. turret is covered by a roughly domed ceiling and entered through an opening with a rough two-centred head.
The first-floor room is open to the roof. In the S.E. wall, the fireplace, blocked with brick in 1949, has rebated jambs and lintel and, just to the S.W., a small recess, partly blocked, with a chamfered segmental head. In the N.W. wall is a large modern brick patching. The doorway to the garderobe has rebated jambs and a two-centred head. The doorway to the vice is similar to the foregoing but with chamfered jambs and, in the adjoining wall of the turret, a recess with a half-arch for the doorswing. The chamber in the W. turret was originally vaulted, but only the springers of the vaulting-ribs remain rising directly out of the angles between the walls. The garderobe has a loop-light in each side wall and retains the shaft and an outlet at ground level.
The roof is comparatively modern, incorporating reused timbers. It is in three bays with tie-beams braced from the side walls and struts from the ties to the purlins.
(306) Vicarage, 100 yds. N. of the parish church, of two and three storeys, with gault brick walls and slate-covered roofs, was built c. 1820, with the principal front to the S.E. and the entrance on the N.W. Later in the century a singlestorey addition was made at the back, on the N.W., the adjacent part of the house being remodelled to contain three storeys. In the present century a porch was built on the N.E., the original door-case being reset.
The uncompromising expression in the simplest architectural terms of the vertical and horizontal features of the S.E. front is of interest as a forerunner of the panel-treatment seen in the most modern buildings. The front is of constant height with a plain stone capping to the parapet. At each end are vertical projecting strips rising the full height without a break; extending horizontally between them across the recessed wall-face is a plain square stone cornice. The contained rectangle so formed has graduated ranges of four windows on each floor, the lower unusually tall. The design is enhanced by the upper windows being so placed that a considerable height of brickwork intervenes between their sills and the window-heads below and only four or five courses between their heads and the cornice.
The reset entrance-doorway in the modern porch has timber pilasters at the sides supporting an entablature with an enriched frieze containing a panel carved with a draped urn in low relief. The N.W. side is irregular; a doorway has timber side-pilasters supporting a shallow flat hood; a large round-headed window lights the staircase. Inside, many of the fittings are modern, but the doorways to the principal rooms have reeded linings to the reveals.
(307) Manor House, in Church Street, 40 yds. N. of the parish church, of two storeys with attics, has red brick walls with modern stone dressings and tile-covered roofs. It was built late in the 17th century and comprised a straight range with a staircase-projection at the back. In the 19th century a W. wing was added, which incorporates 17th-century brickwork, probably a former boundary-wall. In modern times the main, S.W., side has been entirely refaced, the staircase-bay heightened and single-storey additions made on the N.E.
The street-front, with parapet, central doorway, two windows to each side and five on the first floor, is modern though perhaps perpetuating the earlier design. The gabled S.E. end has plat-bands at first and second-floor levels and contains blocked windows. The inside is much altered. The entrance-hall, now extending to more than half the ground floor of the original house, has an original open fireplace, restored, and a carved overmantel brought from elsewhere. The original staircase has close strings, turned balusters and square newels.
The boundary-wall running N.W. from the house, of 17th and 18th-century brickwork, extends to an early 18th-century brick-built Barn of two storeys bounding the house-yard on the N.W.; it is now in part converted into a dwelling.
In the E. corner of the garden, beside the N.E. arm of Church Street and built partly on the boundary-wall, is an 18th-century Summer-house. It is of two storeys, with walls of brown brick with red brick dressings and roofs covered with pantiles. At first-floor level is a plat-band and at the eaves a brick dentil-cornice; the latter and the chimney-stack are of the 19th century. A modern doorway in the S.E. side opens to the street; on the floor above are a sash-hung window and a blind recess; the other walls contain similar windows. Access from the garden is through a plain doorway.
(308) Old Manor House, 23 yds. S.E. of the parish church, of two storeys with attics, has plastered timber-framed walls and tile-covered roofs. It was built in c. 1700 on a T-shaped plan and subsequently extended and modernised. The range beside the street has fireplaces in the gabled end walls; the old S.W. stack is of red brick and projects, that to the N.E. is of modern brick. In the back wing are the only two original windows remaining; they have unmoulded timber frames and wrought-iron casements. Inside, the ceiling-beams athwart the range are cased. The original staircase has close strings and turned balusters.
(309) Chesterton Hall, 317 yds. W.N.W. of the parish church, of two and three storeys with attics, has walls of red brick and tile-covered roofs. It was built in the second quarter of the 17th century on an L-shaped plan with a small block in the re-entrant angle and an octagonal tower on the N.W. angle of the N. wing. In the 19th century a rectangular stair-tower and porch were added on the N. of the W. wing alongside the re-entrant projection and the whole was much restored. In the present century the N. wing was extended N. The house is now the property of the city; it has been modernised and converted into flats.
Chesterton Hall though altered and much restored is of interest as a comparatively large work of the period when much brick building was going forward in Cambridge.
The S. side to Chesterton Road is symmetrical (Plate 307); it has a plain plinth, a moulded brick string at first-floor level and plain eaves. The wall is continued up flush to form the face of three dormer-windows with inset semicircular parapeted gables. All the mullioned windows, of five, three and two lights, those on the lower floors transomed, are of 19th-century stonework, including the small oriel-window in the middle of the first floor. The W. end of the W. wing has plat-bands and finishes in a shaped parapeted gable springing from kneelers composed of oversailing courses of brickwork. The N. side is largely obscured by the 19th-century additions, but rising clear are three old chimney-stacks with twin square shafts. In the N. face of the re-entrant projection E. of the square tower is a modern doorway.
The W. side of the N. wing has been heightened and completed with a fretted parapet in the 19th century. The N.W. tower is divided into three stages by weathered brick strings and has a rebuilt parapet-wall; in the top stage are 19th-century pierced stone panels. All the N. end is masked, except the chimney-stack, similar to those already described but with a modern shaft added. The E. side of the wing has a plain brick string at first-floor level. It has been heightened and the windows have been renewed. No original features remain inside.
(310) Chesterton House, at the corner of Chesterton Road and Church Street, was built at the very end of the 18th century, but the original house has been almost completely obliterated by late 19th-century alteration and extension. It retains linked to outbuildings to the S.E. an 18th-century Pigeon-house of brick with a tiled roof; this is square on plan, and of two storeys, with a plat-band, pilaster-like projections clasping the angles and on the sides, and a doorway on each floor. The alighting platform on the roof survives but not the nesting-boxes.
(311) House, now two tenements, Nos. 25, 27 High Street, on the N. side just N. of the end of Church Street, of two storeys with attics, has brick walls and a slated mansard roof. Though of the 18th century, the building has been drastically altered and a N. wing added in the 19th century. The streetfront is of 18th-century brown brick to the top of the first-floor windows; all above, in gault brick, and the roof, are of the 19th century. The front was symmetrical, with a central doorway, two windows to each side and five above; the original door-case has gone; one of the windows has been converted into a second doorway and the rest contain 19th-century sashes. The other walls are of 19th-century gault brick. No original features survive inside. No. 27 is the 'Bowling Green' public-house.
(312) House, now two tenements, Nos. 26, 28 High Street, on the S. side between Church Street and Chapel Street, of two storeys, with attics, is a late 17th-century timber-framed building mostly cased in 18th-century and modern brickwork and with some weather-boarding. The framing is exposed at the E. end and inside on the first floor.
(313) Hill House, No. 81 High Street, on the N. side opposite Chapel Street, of two storeys with gault brick walls and slate-covered roofs, was built early in the 19th century. At the back is a late 19th-century wing. The street-front is symmetrical, in three bays, with a projecting glazed porch in the middle. This last is comparatively modern but the reset door-case is of the early 18th century, with enriched architrave, flanking engaged Ionic columns, and pedimented entablature; the frieze contains arabesque ornament and the soffit of the pediment is enriched, but the dentil-cornice has been restored without the dentils to the slopes. The windows have slightly cambered brick arches. Inside, the staircase with plain square balusters and turned newels rises in a narrow stairhall between two rooms on each floor.
(314) Westcroft and The Elms, two terrace-houses, Nos. 13, 14 Church Street, on the N. side, near the corner of Chapel Street, of two storeys, have walls of brick and plastered timber-framing and tile-covered roofs. They were built early in the 19th century on a symmetrical half H-shaped plan. The two houses have identical fronts, each with a central doorway with a fanlight set in a round-headed recess of two orders, a window to each side and three on the first floor, and a plat-band below a continuous parapet-wall. In the bay obstructed by the partywall between the houses are blind recesses uniform with the window-openings. The brickwork is returned only about halfway along the gabled ends of the main range; for the rest, the exterior walls are of plastered framing.
Adjoining the foregoing on the S.W., No. 5 Chapel Street, forms a part of the same development but is less distinguished. It has a stucco surround to the round-headed doorway and an eaves-cornice with bricks projecting diagonally.
(315) House, now two tenements, Nos. 225, 227 High Street, on the N. side, 17 yds. N.E. of the School (Monument (102)), of one and two storeys with attics, has walls of rendered brickwork, presumably encasing timber-framing, and tilecovered roofs. It was built probably in the 17th century, comprising a range with a lower cross wing at the S.W. end, the latter projecting only a short way beyond the main frontage, further at the back. Against the back of the main range are modern additions and the chimney-stacks are rebuilt or modern. The timber-mullioned windows to the street are of three lights, some, and the plain entrance-doorway, having stucco labels, all dating from an early 19th-century remodelling. The free end of the main range is faced with 19th-century brickwork; the N.W. end of the cross wing is of older brick, the stack and the rest of the walling being of different builds. Inside, athwart range and wing are exposed chamfered ceiling-beams. No. 225 is derelict (1952).
(316) Roebuck House, opposite the corner of Ferry Lane and Water Street, ¼ m. N.E. of the parish church, of two storeys in part with cellars and attics, has walls partly timber-framed, partly of brick, with some stucco-facing, and tilecovered roofs. The house presents a thick rectangular block on plan. The south-eastern part comprises a nearly symmetrical unit of the early 18th century designed with a room on each side of a central through-passage. An earlier range parallel with and adjoining the foregoing on the N.W. was rebuilt, with re-use of much material, by Robert Robinson when he bought the property in 1775; it then projected north-eastward beyond the early 18th-century range and in the mid 19th century the N.E. re-entrant was filled.
Robert Robinson, Baptist minister and farmer, wrote a brief account of his alterations and repairs; the MS. is preserved in St. Andrew's Street Baptist chapel (Monument (66)).
To the S.E. the stucco-faced front of the early 18th-century house has, approached laterally up flights of steps, a central doorway with a flat hood flanked by two windows to each side, and five windows on the first floor; the two northernmost windows are dummies containing smaller openings. On the roof are two hipped dormer-windows. The 19th-century N. continuation is in gault brickwork, the N.E. return, to the street, rising in an obtuse gable; beyond, flush with the latter, is the red brick gabled end of the earlier block, with a projecting brick course and headers at first-floor level and a platband below the gable. The openings are quite plain, the windows containing double-hung sashes. The N.W. side has the upper part of the more northerly end built of reused orangered bricks, red below, and the rest with a predominance of late 18th-century gault brick. The S.W. end, in large part of timber-framing, is faced with stucco.
Inside, the early 18th-century building contains cased intersecting ceiling-beams and some original doors of two panels. In the rebuilt range, in the N. corner room, are two exposed ceiling-beams, one moulded, of the 17th century and reused, the other chamfered. In the same room an 18th-century cupboard door has two fielded panels and original hinges; another in the room above has doors of early 17th-century panelling.
Outbuildings S.W. of the house, in part of timber-framing probably of the 17th century, include a stable; according to the MS., Robinson rebuilt a stable, barn and wash-house in 1779. The Garden-wall leading S.E. from the E. angle of the house is largely of 17th-century bricks, averaging 1¾ ins. thick.
(317) Range of four tenements, the 'Green Dragon' inn, Nos. 7, 9, 11 Water Street (Plate 306), on the N. side, 500 yds. N.E. of the parish church, of two storeys with attics, has plastered timber-framed walls and tilecovered roofs. It was built in the 16th century, with two wings at the back; additions have since been made beside and on the ends of the wings.
The building is of note as a long timber-framed range of the 16th century.
Towards the street the first floor projects and at the eaves is a timber cornice. The window-frames, containing sliding casements or double-hung sashes, are all of the 19th century including the two three-sided bay-windows to the inn at the south-western end. Between Nos. 7 and 11 is a carriage-way the full height of the ground floor, and providing access to No. 9, which occupies the wing at the rear of No. 11. The latter wing is of miscellaneous materials including squared stones but with timber-framing to the first floor except at the N.W. end; this last is all of brick, the upper floor incorporating 18th-century lacing-courses and therefore presumably rebuilt. The central chimney-stack of the 'Green Dragon' is original below but rebuilt with old bricks in the clear; the S.W. stack in No. 11 is original, with two diagonal shafts; the other stacks are modern or rebuilt.
Inside, the long street range and No. 9 contain longitudinal chamfered ceiling-beams. In No. 11 studded partitioning is exposed. In the inn is an early 18th-century fixed cupboard with doors in two heights of fielded panels, the upper arched, hung between side panels.
(318) House, No. 15 Water Street, on the N. side, 13 yds. N.E. of the foregoing Monument (317), of two storeys, has timber-framed walls, faced with modern brick towards the street, plastered at the back, and tile-covered roofs. It was built probably early in the 17th century, but has been much altered and extended to the N.W. The S.W. gabled end and the base of the chimney-stack at the apex are of original brickwork; in the back wall is a second original chimney-stack, also rebuilt at the top. All the windows have been renewed. The interior has been modernised and the large fireplace to the S.W. cut back; the stair flanking the latter remains presumably in the original position.
(319) House, No. 43 Water Street, on the N. side, 60 yds. N.E. of the foregoing Monument (318), of two storeys, has timber-framed walls cased in modern brickwork and tilecovered roofs. It is of the 16th century with a 19th-century wing on the back, to the N.W. The only original feature remaining visible outside is the great chimney-stack rising from behind the roof-ridge towards the south-western end of the building; the top few courses have been rebuilt. The stack at the junction with the wing is of the 19th century. Inside are intersecting stop-chamfered ceiling-beams on the ground floor. Exposed on the first floor are chamfered wall-posts with enlarged heads under the roof-trusses.
(320) House, on the N. side of Scotland Road, ¼ m. N. by E. of the parish church, of two storeys with attics, has brick walls and tile-covered roofs. It is a 17th-century timber-framed structure remodelled in the 18th century when the S.W. side and the ends were cased in gault brick. A wing was added on the E. in the 19th century. The brick walls have a plat-band at first-floor level. The S.W. side has a central doorway flanked by a wide window on each side, five windows on the first floor and a timber eaves-cornice. The S.E. end has in the lower part red brickwork in continuation of the adjoining garden-wall; the gable-end and that at the opposite end are plastered, probably over framing. The N.E. side, where free, is faced with pargeting in large rough-faced panels. Inside, the entrance is into a lobby beside the central chimney-stack. The S.E. ground-floor room is lined with reset panelling, mostly of the early 17th century. Some doors are of the early 18th century, of two panels.
(321) Railway Dwellings near the Chesterton Junction of the Cambridge-Ely, Cambridge-St. Ives railway-lines, consist of (a) and (b) two detached houses, (c) two symmetrical blocks containing six tenements. They are of gault brick with low-pitched, slate-covered roofs. The Eastern Counties Railway from Bishop's Stortford to Ely was opened in 1845, the St. Ives branch line in 1847.
(a) House for the crossing-keeper (Plate 309), close S. of Fen Road, built c. 1845, is of one storey and cruciform on plan with porches and some later additions in the re-entrant angles. The window-openings have round heads and brick imposts continued round the building as plat-bands; they contain double-hung sashes. The boxed eaves project widely, the roofs are hipped and the ridges run into a central square chimney-stack.
(b) House, perhaps incorporating a former signal-box (Plate 309), in the angle between the junction, 100 yds. N. by E. from the Fen Road crossing, built c. 1847, is of two storeys and comprises, on plan, a rectangle to the N. joined by a recessed bay to an octagon to the S. It has a continuous platband at first-floor level. The openings are plain; some windows contain double-hung sashes, several others are blind. The roofs are hipped and have boxed eaves with a continuous bed-mould consisting of an oversailing brick course. The rebuilt chimneystacks are eccentric.
(c) Tenements, 37 yds. N. of (b), built c. 1847, of two storeys, comprise two symmetrical blocks, H-shaped on plan, with the link and the cross-wings each containing a tenement. They have rusticated brick quoins and plat-bands at first-floor level. Some of the windows are blind, others contain double-hung sashes.
(322) The Round House (Plate 309), former toll-house, on the N. side of Newmarket Road, 70 yds. E.S.E. of Stourbridge Chapel (Monument (62)), originally of one storey, has gault brick walls and low-pitched slate-covered roofs. The decision to build a new toll-house at the end of the turnpike at the 'Paper Mills' (Monument (323)) is recorded in the Cambridge Chronicle 29 Aug. 1828. It was symmetrical, comprising a narrow rectangular block with a semi-octagonal bay projecting on the S. as far as the road, but a modern two-storey addition has been made on the N.E. The openings are plain. The windows have stone sills and those flanking the bay are set in segmental-headed recesses. The roofs are hipped and have bracketed boxed eaves supported on slender freestanding castiron columns at the angles of the bay.
(323) 'Paper Mills', house, on the E. bank of Coldham's Brook, 33 yds. E. of Monument (322), of two storeys with attics, has gault brick walls and tile-covered roofs. It was built early in the 18th century and consists of a long rectangular range at right angles to the Newmarket Road. Alterations were made early in the 19th century and subsequently a wing and various small additions were built on the E. The mill adjoining on the N., presumably a rebuilding of an older mill, is dated 1871. Fuller writing in 1662 (Worthies, 149) says paper was made here 'in the memory of our fathers'. Subsequently it seems to have been used as a flour-mill until affected by reduction in the flow of the brook resulting from extraction by the Waterworks Company, who bought the freehold (A. B. Gray, Cambridge Revisited (1921), 91).
The house has a continuous plat-band at first-floor level, another across the base of the S. gable-end and a brick dentilcornice at the eaves. The W. front is given early 19th-century character by the addition of a trelliswork porch with flared roof to the main entrance and slatted shutters to the windows; the whole is in six bays and on the roof are two dormer-windows with 19th-century bargeboards. At the S. end is a projecting chimney-stack and the gable springs from moulded brick kneelers. The E. side is masked.
Inside were originally three rooms divided by two partitions. The N. partition to the entrance-passage through the house is an early 19th-century insertion; the original S. partition has timber-framing and brick nogging exposed to the S. Where visible the ceiling-beams athwart the range are chamfered. The middle room was remodelled in the early 19th century and the fireplace, stack and cornice are of this date.
Trumpington
(324) Trumpington Hall, 245 yds. N.W. of the parish church, of three storeys with cellars, has walls of red brick and slate-covered roofs of low pitch. It is approached along an avenue of elms leading E. and W. from the Trumpington Road. The estate was bought from the Pytcher family in 1675 by Sir Francis Pemberton, 1625–97, Lord Chief Justice 1681, in whose family it has remained, the Pemberton name being retained on descent through the female line. The hall was built in c. 1710 on a half H-shaped plan with the wings extending E., incorporating an earlier building of c. 1600 in the northern end. It was re-roofed early in the 19th century, the date 1826 is scratched on one of the slates, and this seems to have involved heightening the earlier attic storey to a full storey. Probably at the same time a porch was added in the middle of the main, E., front, all the windows were resashed and kitchen-offices added on the N.W. Modern work includes the addition in 1900 of a rectangular window-bay on the W., the insertion of a staircase from first to second floor, various other minor alterations inside and, in 1905, a new Library wing on the N. The open walk against the S. wall of the kitchen-offices is an addition of 1929. Part of the house was converted into three flats in 1947.
Trumpington Hall, though too much altered to be an outstanding example of building of the early 18th century, is a house of gracious dignity in a fine, spacious architectural and natural setting.
Architectural Description—The building has a plinth, platbands at first and second-floor levels and widely projecting early 19th-century eaves to contemporary low-pitched hipped roofs. The entrance front (Plate 299) is symmetrical; the recessed face was originally of seven bays but the ground-floor windows S. of the central doorway have been altered and the original northernmost window on the same floor blocked; for the rest the original window-openings remain on the ground and first floors and have comparatively high segmental heads. The top-floor openings with shallower heads are probably of 1826. The early 19th-century porch with pilasters and entablature is stucco-faced. The wings have two windows to the front on each floor; their inward-facing returns are each in three bays mostly of blind recesses maintaining the rhythm of the fenestration already described, but the centre bays each contain a doorway on the ground floor, that in the N. wing, cut in 1922, hung with a glazed door, that opposite having a door-case with a crowning entablature with the moulded architrave ramped up in the frieze, the door being of eight fielded panels. The S. end has a projecting three-sided bay, probably a rather later addition, near the middle with a window in each face on each floor; these and the windows and recesses in the flanking wallfaces are similar to those already described but the easternmost ground-floor window has been cut down to form a doorway and the westernmost blocked. The W. side is in part concealed by a rectangular two-storey bay to the S. and a kitchen annexe to the N., both modern, but a change in colour of the brickwork of the top storey shows a heightening; the windows, where visible, are similar to the rest at the same respective levels. The same holds for the N. end, but here a ground-floor window retains original box-framing and hung sashes with thick glazing-bars.
Inside, the 'Justice Hall' in the S.E. wing is lined with reset panelling of c. 1600 above an 18th-century panelled dado. The fireplace has a flat moulded stone surround of the early 18th century with a contemporary cast-iron fire-back and S. of it within the depth of the chimney-breast is a small winding stair rising to the second floor. In the Dining-room is an early 19th-century reeded fireplace-surround of white marble with roundels at the angles. The Kitchen has an early 18th-century fireplace-surround with marble slips, timber eared frame, pulvinated frieze and cornice. In the passage W. of the Kitchen is a dado of reset panelling of c. 1600 in two heights with a fluted frieze. Early 17th-century stop-chamfered ceiling-beams span the Servants' Hall at the N. end of the house, the cross-beam extending over the service-passage adjoining on the W.; the same room contains an early 18th-century flat moulded stone surround to the fireplace. In the Study in the N.E. wing is a stop-chamfered ceiling-beam and an overmantel incorporating reused early 17th-century enriched panelling; the dado-panelling is of the same period. The Butler's pantry in the N.W. corner of the house retains some early 18th-century panelling. Beside the fireplace in the main Stairhall is a small round-headed alcove with panelled side-pilasters and moulded archivolt. The staircase from ground to first floor is of c. 1710, of oak, with alternate turned and twisted balusters two to a step, cut strings with carved scroll-brackets, moulded ramped handrail and columnar newels.
On the first floor the bedroom, formerly the Drawing-room, over the present Drawing-room is lined with 18th-century fielded panelling in two heights with dado-rail and cornice; the fireplace has marble slips, an enriched timber architrave, pulvinated frieze and cornice and a bolection-moulded panel forming the overmantel. Two other E. bedrooms are panelled similarly to the foregoing; in one is a flat stone, in the other a marble, surround to the fireplace. The bedroom over the servants' hall and the adjoining corridor on the W. though sub-divided by later partitions are lined from floor to ceiling with early 17th-century panelling in five heights with a fluted frieze; part of the chimney-stack of the earlier house is visible in a cupboard in the S. wall; the contemporary fireplace-surround and overmantel are now loose in the stables. The fireplace has fluted Ionic pilasters at the sides standing on pedestals enriched with arabesques; the overmantel comprises three bays of enriched arched panels divided by acanthus-leaf brackets and a frieze containing carved lions' masks. The flat moulded marble surround to the fireplace in the bedroom over the Kitchen is of the early 18th century.
The deep segmental-ended E. Forecourt is the same width as the Hall; adjoining the latter in the high brick lateral walls are small wrought-iron gates between piers. The E. end is circumscribed by a dwarf wall and has in the middle a large wrought-iron gate in two leaves between tall brick piers with stone cornices surmounted by gadrooned urns; the lateral curves are divided into bays by square brick piers set diagonally and contain restored white painted palings.
The Stables N.E. of the Hall are contemporary with it and of similar materials. They have a plinth, a plat-band at first-floor level, a brick dentil-cornice and a renewed low-pitched roof. Modern double doors have been inserted. On the S. wall is an early 18th-century lead rainwater-pipe with shaped head.
(325) Anstey Hall, 133 yds. S.E. of the parish church, of two storeys with cellars and attics has walls of dull red brick, with freestone dressings towards the front, and tile-covered roofs. It was built late in the 17th century probably by Anthony Thompson (Deputy Lieutenant for Cambridgeshire 1698–1701) on a half H-shaped plan, the wings extending back to the S., with small square projections, that to the W. perhaps containing a staircase, in the re-entrant angles. (Cf. Magdalene College, plan of Pepys Building.) In the second half of the 19th century the house was made nearly half as large again by an addition on the E. and in 1909 the original building was extensively remodelled inside. This later work included the removal of the reentrant projections on the ground and first floors, an addition filling most of the depth of the S. recess between the wings, removal of the main staircase from the W. re-entrant projection and reconstruction where it now is, removal of partition-walls from the present Hall and Library and rearrangement of the N.E. ground-floor rooms. Low additions were also made on the W. The panelling, now painted, and fireplacesurrounds in many of the rooms are of late 17th-century character, but the interior alterations and refitting have been so extensive that some uncertainty remains of their antiquity.
Anstey Hall though extensively altered inside retains a notable late 17th-century N. front with pedimented centrepiece.
The N. front is symmetrical, in nine bays, with the middle bay projecting slightly and elaborated with rusticated stone quoins and inset lofty attached Ionic columns on rusticated pedestals supporting a pediment with a modillion-cornice; in the tympanum is a cartouche carved with the arms of Thompson. The wall continues up above the pediment as an attic with two pedestals on the face surmounted by pineapple finials. The central doorway approached up steps has a stone surround with scroll-brackets supporting a segmental pediment. The rest of the front flanking the centrepiece has a plinth with moulded weathering, rusticated quoins, a platband at first-floor level and a modillion-cornice all of stone with lead-covered box guttering simulating a blocking-course. The window-openings are uniform throughout, with stone architraves and sills, and contain double-hung sashes with thick glazing-bars. On the roof are six dormer-windows with segmental and triangular timber pediments alternating outwards from the centrepiece. The roof is hipped at each end, though a later roof adjoins on the E.
The S. side has a continuous brick plat-band at first-floor level. The two wings have coved eaves-cornices and hipped roofs. Emerging above the modern addition in the recessed centre are the upper parts of the two original re-entrant projections; these have cornices and roofs similar to those of the wings. The window-openings are plain, with double-hung sashes. Rising from the S. wall of the main range are two lofty chimney-stacks, in part rebuilt.
The W. end is partly concealed by small single-storey modern additions. The plat-band and eaves-cornice are continued from the S. side. The projecting chimney-stack is modern but links with an original stack at eaves level; the former impinges upon the stone architrave of a small casementwindow on the first floor; the upper courses of the latter have been rebuilt. The E. end is entirely covered by later building.
Inside, the Hall is lined with bolection-moulded panelling in two heights of panels with dado-rail and cornice. The fireplace has a bolection-moulded wood surround with pulvinated frieze and cornice-shelf and an overmantel with a similarly moulded panel flanked by broad panelled pilasters under a deep panelled frieze and a return of the main cornice. The whole has been painted. The Library W. of the foregoing is lined with similar panelling and contains two restored fireplace-surrounds, etc., also similar to that just described but of marble and wood and without the panelled frieze. The elaborate plaster ceiling is of 1909. The room in the S.E. wing has exposed intersecting moulded oak ceiling-beams and is lined in large part with reset early 17th-century panelling, seven panels high, but in the N. wall is an early 18th-century recess with elliptical head flanked by round-headed doorways with panelled side-pilasters and moulded archivolts with scrolled key-blocks. The early 18th-century fireplace has a flat panelled surround of stone with a key-block.
The main staircase incorporates some original turned balusters. On the first floor some of the rooms contain bolection-moulded panelling and fireplace-surrounds of c. 1700 in character. The room in the S.E. wing has an enriched plaster ceiling, fireplace-surround and, between the windows, a pierglass in an elaborate rococo frame, all of the mid 18th century. In the attics are two old plank doors and one reused eight-panel door of c. 1600. In the cellars are some chamfered ceiling-beams and a reused 16th-century moulded beam.
(326) Vicarage, 20 yds. S.E. of the parish church, of two storeys with cellars and attics, has walls of purple-brown brick with red brick dressings and tile-covered roofs. A faculty was granted on 21 July 1733 to the Rev. John Barwell, D.D., to rebuild the vicarage (C.A.S. Proc. XXXV (1935), 62). The new building was nearly square on plan with an annexe on the N. Early in the 19th century a two-storey window-bay was added on the E. In modern times the house has been increased about a third in size by a S. extension uniform in height and style with the 18th-century work; the N. annexe has been demolished and replaced by a lower addition.
The outside is plain, with a plinth and a continuous platband below the parapet-wall. The rectangular window-openings contain double-hung sashes. On the roof are hipped dormer-windows. To the W. the original house was of four bays with the entrance-doorway in the second from the N., but the two windows S. of the latter have since been remodelled. The semi-octagonal window-bay added on the E. is of gault brick; in each face on each floor is a window.
Inside, the Dining-room and Study are lined with original panelling in two heights with dado-rail and cornice. The fireplaces have flat moulded stone surrounds, the lintels with small quadrants springing from the side-pieces, and later enriched friezes and cornice-shelves. The Bedrooms over the foregoing contain rather similar fireplaces and the second is lined with plain original panelling with one of the doors hung on cock's-head hinges. The staircase is original, with moulded strings, turned balusters, columnar newels, a moulded handrail, and a panelled dado from ground to first floor.
(327) Anstey Hall Farm, house, barns, dovecote, stands close W. of the parish church. The house, of two storeys and one storey with attics, has walls of plastered timber-framing and brick and slate-covered roofs of low pitch. It is roughly half H-shaped on plan. The main N. and S. range may be of 17th-century origin but it has since been widened by reconstruction of the W. wall further out and heightened. The N.W. wing was added in the late 18th century, the S.W. wing in the late 19th century. The main E. side is of rural simplicity, of three widely-spaced bays, with a central doorway and wide sash-hung windows on the ground floor, narrower above. In the N. gable-end is a two-light window with two-centred head containing leaded quarries. Inside are cased ceiling-beams and some 18th-century doors of two fielded panels.
The large 17th or 18th-century thatched Barn S.W. of the house has a brick plinth to weather-boarded timber-framed walls. It is of four bays with an aisle on the W. side and returned across the S. end. The trusses have tie-beams with straight braces from the wall-posts and struts to the principals, single collar-beams, two purlins to each slope under the principals and a ridge-piece. The double-framed aisle roof has ties with struts to the principals. The threshing-floor has double doors to E. and W., the last in a transeptal bay. On the N. end is a narrower and lower extension of three bays.
The small Barn of c. 1700 standing 60 yds. S. of the house is of brick. It has been much altered and re-roofed. The 17th or 18th-century Dovecote 50 yds. W. of the foregoing is of two storeys, square on plan, with a gault brick plinth, plastered timber-framed walls and a half-hipped roof covered with tiles. Though now without nests, it is so identified by analogy with the otherwise similar building at Long Stow (R.C.H.M., Huntingdonshire, 262, pl. 166).
(328) House, 37 yds. N.N.E. of the parish church, of two storeys with attics, has plastered timber-framed walls and tilecovered roofs. It is dated 1654. The plan is L-shaped, consisting of a main range with a N.W. wing. The doorways and windows were renewed in the 18th and 19th century and the whole of the framed W. side of the wing is modern. The date is on the plaster facing to the S. side of the main range and doubtless renewed. It retains two original central chimneystacks, one in the main range flanked by a stair, the other at the junction with the wing; the former has the upper part rebuilt; the latter has four shafts set diagonally.
Inside are stop-chamfered and ovolo-moulded ceiling-beams running longitudinally and athwart the main range and exposed framing. Doors include one of mid 17th-century moulded panelling, and others of the early 18th century of two and three fielded panels. The E. Boundary-wall of the garden is of 17th or 18th-century red brick.
(329) The Old House on the S.E. side of Church Lane, 127 yds. E. by N. of the parish church, of two storeys with attics, has brick walls and tiled roofs. It was built as a rectangular range late in the 16th century, early enlarged by the addition of a N.E. wing in the following century, and restored in 1924 when an extension on the S.W. end was entirely rebuilt. During the restoration the lower part of the N.E. gabled end of the original range and the ground-floor fireplace collapsed and were rebuilt. The interior has been reconditioned.
The Old House is a good example of late 16th-century local brick building.
The outside has a restored continuous plat-band at first-floor level, plat-bands across the base of the gables and plain eaves. The gables to each end of the original range bordering the street and the paired gablets of the N.E. wing have crow-stepped parapets; those to the former are properly contrived with coped brickwork weatherings, to the latter botched. In the brickwork are several ties with wrought-iron S-shaped wall-anchors. The street-front (Plate 307) has a blocked doorway at the extreme southern end, two windows on the ground floor, the southern modern, and three on the first floor, the last with labels. The windows, except the one, are original and of three lights with moulded timber frames with simple gouged enrichment. A fascia to the wall-plate has enrichment similar to the foregoing and iron rings. The N.E. gabled end is surmounted by a rebuilt chimney-stack with square shafts rising from a rectangular base and linked by their capping; in the base is a recessed oval stone panel carved with a swag tied with a ribbon now weatherworn. The windows are similar to those to the N.W. but of two lights. The opposite end is largely masked; the stack is similar to that already described but with a square diagonal brick panel in the base. The S.E. side of the range is largely remodelled but on the roof are two old gabled dormer-windows. The N.E. wing is much patched and restored; the window-frames are old but may be reset; in the gablets are small oval windows.
Inside, are exposed longitudinal chamfered ceiling-beams supporting joists of slight scantling. At the head of the stairs from the ground to the first floor is a length of oak balustrading with shaped plank balusters and a moulded griphandrail. The reset early 17th-century staircase from the first floor to the attics has close strings, moulded square balusters tapering to the base, a moulded grip-handrail and square newels with shaped finials. The doorways opening off the first-floor landing have original moulded timber frames; towards the rooms they had late 17th-century pedimented hoods on shaped brackets, but the pediment of one is now missing.
(330) Maris House, on the N.E. side of Maris Lane, 150 yds. E.S.E. of the parish church, of two storeys with attics, has red brick walls and roofs mainly tiled. It is a rectangular house of c. 1800 with a roof in two spans; on the N. is a contemporary annexe subsequently heightened and now with a slated lean-to roof. On the N.E. is a small modern addition. The street-front is symmetrical. The doorway in the middle has a timber case with a moulded architrave with roundels at the angles and a flat hood with panelled soffit; the casement-windows to each side and the three on the first floor have segmental heads; on the roof are three gabled dormer-windows. The tall chimney-stacks rise behind the ridge, from the valley between the roofs. In the side walls are two casement-windows with two-centred heads and glazing-bars similarly curved; one is of two lights, the other of one light.
The inside has been altered but parts of an original panelled dado remain in the kitchen and an exposed chamfered ceiling-beam in the N.W. room. Off the N.W. corner of the house is a small cellar with a brick barrel vault; the upper surface of this last is now exposed.
(331) House, set back on the W. side of Trumpington Road, 273 yds. E. by N. of the parish church, is of two storeys with attics. The N. and W. brick exterior walls only are old, of the 17th century. The N. wall retains a three-light window on the first floor with ovolo-moulded timber frame and mullions, probably reset. In the W. wall is a boldly projecting chimney-stack weathered back just above a plat-band at first-floor level and with two original diagonal shafts.
(332) Manor Farm, on the E. side of Trumpington Road, 20 yds. N. of the Village Hall, of two storeys with cellars and attics, has red brick walls and tiled roofs. It was built early in the 17th century and probably consisted of a hall and inner room on the ground floor. In the 18th century a new staircase and attics were inserted and the whole refronted in brick. A 19th-century single-storey extension to the E. contains the kitchen. A wing projecting from the N. side has been demolished; against the N. wall is now a 19th-century passage with a small modern addition at the W. end. The outside is plain, the only features in any way unusual are the staircasewindows in the S. wall placed midway between the storeys and the pitched brickwork to the parapet of the W. gable. Inside are early 17th-century stop-chamfered ceiling-beams of elm and pine. The staircase has plain strings, slender turned balusters and newels and a moulded handrail. In the roof a tie-beam is cut through for a doorway, another is breast high; the studs of a partition are exposed.
(333) House, on the E. side of the road, 20 yds. N. of the foregoing, of two storeys, has plastered timber-framed walls and tiled roofs. It was built in the early 17th century, with a central chimney-stack flanked by an entrance lobby giving access to a hall and parlour and by a stair, since removed. At the back, on the S., is a later addition with a lean-to roof. The plinth wall has been faced or rebuilt in gault brick; the framing above is exposed on the S. where it has a sill and studs 1½ ft. apart. Rafters, plates and purlins are exposed in the W. gable-end. The window-openings contain sliding and hinged casements. The chimney-stack dividing the rooms, originally two on each floor, rises at the ridge in a large square shaft of red brick.
Inside are longitudinal chamfered ceiling-beams. The open fireplace facing N. has a chamfered timber bressummer. One stair is in the S.W. corner, a second in the S.E. corner; both are later insertions, presumably of the time when the house was divided into two tenements. Much of the timber-framing of the walls, including the N.W. corner-post, is exposed. On the first floor is an 18th-century pine plank partition dividing the E. room into two.
(334) House, the Old Police Cottage, now two tenements, on the W. side of Trumpington Road, 50 yds. N. of the entrance to Trumpington Hall, of two storeys with cellars, has brick walls and thatched roofs. It comprises a main range with a projecting staircase-bay on the S.W.; the N. part, consisting of two rooms with a central chimney-stack, is of the 17th century, extended S. and the whole re-roofed early in the 18th century. On the W., bringing the plan out to the rectangle, is a modern single-storey addition containing kitchens for the two tenements. A continuous plat-band at first-floor level returns upward in label-like form over the original doorways and three ground-floor windows in the E. front; a fourth window has been blocked and a 19th-century doorway broken through beside it. Three ground-floor windows have segmental heads, those above square heads, and all contain early casements. On one of the bricks of the chimney-stack at the ridge are scratched the initials T (or I) P said to be for a Pemberton.
Inside, the cellar-stair has solid oak treads and turned balusters. To the fireplace in the N. ground-floor room is a bolection-moulded clunch surround. The S. room has an early 19th-century moulded fireplace-surround with roundels at the angles. Chamfered and stop-chamfered ceiling-beams and square joists are exposed throughout most of the ground floor. The staircase has original square newels, plain and waved plank balusters and a later handrail. The partitions of the S. bedroom are of exposed timber framing. The numerous plank doors are original.
(335) House, now two tenements, on the W. side of the road, 27 yds. N. of the foregoing, of one storey with attics, has brick walls and thatched roofs. It was built c. 1700 and consisted of a range of three rooms with fireplaces at each end. The middle room was smaller than the others and perhaps once a dairy with an entrance passage to one side, but any partition has been removed and a party-wall built across the middle of the house. The division into two tenements was made probably in the late 18th century when sculleries were added on each end of the range. The outside has a plat-band at first-floor level; the windows are of two and three lights with timber frames and leaded quarries. The gabled dormer-windows rise flush with the main wall-face and their casements retain original wrought-iron fittings. One of the W. doorways retains an original moulded plank door.
Inside are longitudinal chamfered ceiling-beams and the framing of some of the partitions is exposed. In a bedroom a partition is seen to consist of studding between the tie-beam and collar of a roof-truss.
(336) 'Green Man', inn, on the E. side of Trumpington Road, 47 yds. S. of Alpha Terrace, of one storey with attics and two storeys, has walls of timber-framing and brick and tile-covered roofs. It was built in the 15th century with a ground-floor hall open to the roof in the middle and a cross-wing at each end. In the following century a floor was inserted in the hall and the S. wing was extended eastward; the N. wall of the extension has been rebuilt since and a further extension made in modern times. A large bay-window was added on the road side of the hall and a small annexe on the S.W. corner of the house in the early 19th century. The inn was modernised and most of the mediaeval work concealed in 1954.
The 'Green Man' is a late mediaeval house of much interest, but the structural timber-work inside is no longer visible.
Towards the road (Plate 304) the eaves of the original hall are low and the great expanse of roof is broken by an inserted hipped dormer-window. The original doorway to the screenspassage was remodelled early in the 19th century and has a timber door-case of this period with side-pilasters and entablature; filling most of the wall northward is an inserted bay-window. In the opposite wall of the hall some of the original framing shows outside but the screens doorway and the window beside it are renewed.
The N. cross-wing projects only slightly to the W. and is flush with the hall wall on the E. It is gabled to E. and W.; in the W. gable-end is a modern pargeted panel; the E. gable-wall is underpinned in brickwork, which is returned across the N. wall. The chimney-stack projecting from this last is of 18th-century bricks in the lower part, modern above. The windows and doorways are renewed or later insertions. The original S. cross-wing is similar in form and general appearance to the foregoing, also with later brick underpinning, but the E. wall and the S.W. angle are concealed by the later additions. The form of the S. slope of the roof has been modified but the earlier rafters remain.
The E. wing has a large projecting chimney-stack on the S. with a weathered offset at first-floor level and a moulded brick base to an original diagonal shaft.
Inside, are central longitudinal beams from end to end of the ground floor. The upper floor has been modernised but in 1948 the original roofs were seen largely to survive. The hall roof consisted of tie-beam trusses with collar-beams and a collar-purlin; the purlin extended further N. and S. to be supported on braced king-posts integral with the tie and collar-beam roofs of the cross-wings, themselves with collarpurlins.
(337) 'Coach and Horses', inn, on the W. side of the road, N.W. of the foregoing, of two storeys with cellars and attics, has walls of plastered timber-framing and brick and tilecovered roofs. The N. part of the main range was built early in the 17th century; soon afterwards it was enlarged by the addition of a small gabled wing on the W. and a long S. extension. In the 18th century a square staircase-bay was added in the re-entrant angle; then single-storey annexes were built round the wing, involving the removal of the lower walling, and against the stair and the whole re-roofed, and last, in the early 19th century, a large extension was made to the N.E. The walls have since been extensively faced and under-built in gault brick. The road-front is largely of the 19th century and modern but retains an early 18th-century timber dentilcornice at the eaves supported on reused 17th-century curved brackets. The large chimney-stack of red brick in the back wall of the S. extension has a plinth, pronounced weatherings and a 19th-century heightening. In the doorway into the single-storey annexe to the W. wing is a reset early 17th-century panelled door with strap-hinges. The windows have for the most part been renewed.
Inside, the N. room in the main range has a large blocked fireplace in the back wall, exposed wall-plates and a longitudinal chamfered ceiling-beam. The middle room has the E. and S. walls lined with mid 17th-century panelling, four panels high, with a frieze of guilloche ornament; on the W. wall is some early 17th-century panelling carved with arabesques. The S. room is lined with 17th-century panelling, four panels high, with a plain frieze, and the overmantel comprises four enriched panels flanked by Doric pilasters. Both the latter rooms have 18th-century stone fireplacesurrounds and exposed longitudinal ceiling-beams. The staircase-bay has the timber-framing exposed inside; the stairs turn round a central newel and on the top landing are slender turned balusters. Much of the timber-framing, with chamfered wall-plates, is exposed in the bedrooms. The S. bedroom contains 17th-century panelling with a fluted frieze. Many of the rooms retain minor 18th-century fittings.
(338) Clay Farm, S. of Long Road, 5/8 m. N.E. of the parish church, comprises four buildings ranged round a square yard N.W. of the farmhouse. The arrangement and some of the buildings are of the 17th or 18th century; of the latter the following are more noteworthy:
(a) Barn, on the N., with walls of weather-boarded timber-framing on a brick plinth and thatched roofs, is aisled and of five bays, the middle bay containing the threshing-floor. The freestanding posts have enlarged heads supporting braced tie-beams with struts to the purlins and raking struts to the principals; at regular intervals are lower and upper collars to the common rafters, the upper collars clasping purlins immediately below the ridge.
(b) Barn, on the W., with walls of cob faced with tar on a brick plinth and thatched roofs, is of three bays.
(c) Granary, on the E., of two storeys with walls of cob, partly rebuilt in brick, and tile-covered hipped roofs, is square on plan. The bins on the upper floor may be original.