Silver Street

Silver Street

(57) House, on the corner of Silver Street and Minster Street, is of three storeys with attics and has timber-framed walls and a tiled roof (Plate 100). Of 15th-century origin, it probably is the building which John Wynchestre bequeathed to Trinity Hospital in 1458 (Haskins, Guilds, 363). Extensive alterations and internal refitting have taken place. The two-bay roof has curved wind-braces.

(58) House, No. 38, of three storeys with attics, with timber-framed walls and tiled roofs, was built early in the 18th century. The three-bay N. front (Plate 100) is faced with mathematical tiles and has sashed windows and a wooden cornice. The dog-leg staircase with close strings and turned balusters is original.

(59) House, No. 40, of three storeys with attics, with timber-framed walls and tiled roofs, is of the early 18th century. The two-bay N. front is faced with mathematical tiles.

(60) House, No. 42, originally of two low storeys with an attic, but now without the first floor, has timber-framed walls and a tiled roof and probably is of 15th-century origin.

(61) House, No. 44, of two storeys with an attic, with timber-framed walls and a tiled roof, was built in the 17th century. The gabled S. front has 19th-century sashed windows.

(62) House, No. 46, of two storeys with attics, with timber-framed walls and tiled roofs, is of 16th-century origin, but it was extensively altered and refaced in the 19th century.

(63) Houses, three adjoining, Nos. 48–52, are each three-storeyed with an attic and have walls partly of flint and ashlar, but mainly of timber framework; the roofs are tiled. A drawing of 1813 by W.H. Charlton is in Salisbury Museum (Plate 10). The present houses, built in 1471, replace three buildings which were given to the Dean and Chapter by John Waltham, a favourite of Richard II, who was Bishop of Salisbury in 1388 and Chancellor of England in 1391. Although buried at Westminster in 1395 (brass in chapel of Edward the Confessor), he established a chantry in Salisbury cathedral and endowed it with a rent of 60s. from these properties. In 1455 the three dwellings were occupied by chantry priests. (fn. 1) In 1471, being ruinous, £160 was given for their rebuilding by John Cranborn and John Stokes, canons of the cathedral, who thereby founded their own obit. (fn. 2) The new houses were complete in 1473. In 1649 all three had shops facing Silver Street: No. 48 and part of No. 50 was occupied by Walter Comb, hosier; Henry Whitmarsh, public notary, had the rest of No. 50; Henry Steward, grocer, had No. 52. (fn. 3) A through-passage in the E. part of No. 48 perpetuates an ancient right-of-way from High Street to Castle Street through St. Thomas's churchyard (see p. xxxiii); the passage is entered through elliptical-headed archways, doubtless added in the 18th century. Further W., the lower part of the N. wall of No. 52 is of chequered flint and ashlar with an ogeemoulded plinth; elsewhere the N. wall is timber-framed, and an original dragon-post with a plain bracket above a moulded capping remains at the N.W. corner. Each house is jettied to N. and S. at first and second-floor levels and each has a gabled roof with a N.–S. ridge; the W. house, No. 52, is also jettied westwards at the same levels. The N. front of No. 50 retains in the second storey an original oak window of two ogee-headed lights with tracery, as shown. In the three-bay roofs, collared and angle-braced tie-beam trusses support chamfered single through-purlins, with wind-braces.