Gore's Chequer

Gore's Chequer

(390) House, No. 14 Endless Street, of two storeys with an attic, is probably of the early 17th century; the walls, entirely of 18th-century and later brickwork, presumably replace timber framework. The steeply pitched two-bay roof, ridged E. – W., has original trusses with chamfered purlins and straight wind-braces.

(391) Loder House, mainly two-storeyed, with brick walls and tiled and slated roofs, was in an advanced state of decay when investigated in 1962; since then it has been extensively altered. The N. part of the house, comprising two ground-floor rooms and three on the first floor, is of c. 1750; until 1962 the W. room on each floor retained very handsome decorations. The S. part, containing the entrance vestibule, stairs and service rooms, was of c. 1850 and had plainer fittings.

The 18th-century part of the W. front had two sashed windows in each storey and a pediment above a heavy brick cornice. The windows and eaves of the 19th-century wing were at a lower level than in the earlier building.

Inside, the 19th-century staircase had cast-iron balusters and rounded mahogany handrails. In the 18th-century part of the house the dining room had panelled walls with an acanthus scroll frieze, a bracketed cornice and a panelled plaster ceiling with classical enrichments. The chimneypiece (Plate 94) had a scrolled pediment enclosing a gilded eagle with a garland in its beak. The doorways had pulvinated entablatures. A panel on the N. wall contained a painting on canvas ascribed to the Roman Mannerist school of c. 1550, probably a fragment of a larger work. The drawing room had decorations of c. 1850. On the first floor, the W. chamber had rococo wall decorations in plaster (Plate 95), and a modelled plaster ceiling of c. 1750. The N.E. chamber was lined with 18th-century fielded panelling in three heights. The small S.E. dressing-room had no notable features. In the S. part of the house several rooms had 18th-century joinery, presumably reset.

Since 1962 the building has been divided into shops and offices, and the rich interior decorations have gone.

(392) Cottages, pair, Nos. 22–4 Endless Street, are of two storeys with brick walls and slated roofs and were built early in the 19th century. In each cottage the W. front is of two bays with plain sashed windows and a square-headed doorway.

(393) House, No. 26, now Local Government Offices, is partly of two and partly of three storeys with brick walls and low-pitched slate-covered roofs; it dates from early in the 19th century. The E. front is asymmetrical, with plain sashed windows and a square-headed doorway in a door-case with reeded decoration. The porch, largely modern, includes early 19th-century wooden columns of elegant design with clustered shafts and flared capitals. Inside, the original staircase has slender turned balusters.

(394) Warehouse, No. 20 Bedwin Street, recently remodelled, was of three storeys with brick walls and a tiled roof and dated from early in the 19th century. It was built as an extension of No. 20a (395).

(395) House, No. 20a, of three storeys with brick walls and a tiled roof, was built in the 18th century. Until 1967 it had a symmetrical N. front of three bays with a central doorway, but it has since been remodelled.

(396) House, No. 22, mainly of three storeys with brick walls and a tiled roof, was built c. 1800. The N. front is symmetrical and of three bays, with a round-headed central doorway and with plain sashed windows or blind recesses. To the S., a two-storeyed wing with walls of rubble and flint in the lower storey and of timber framework above is the W. bay of a 16th-century range which originally extended as far as Rolleston Street; part of the lower storey remains as the garden wall of No. 26 Endless Street (398). The 16th-century roof has a collared tie-beam truss with lower angle braces, a king-strut and clasped purlins. The house of c. 1800 has a class—U plan.

(397) House, No. 24 Bedwin Street, of three storeys with brick walls and tiled roofs, dates from c. 1800. The N. doorway (Plate 99) has a segmental hood, a Greekfret frieze, and jambs with clustered shafts and leaf capitals. In the E. elevation a first-floor room has a projecting sashed window curved on plan. Inside, the rooms have 19th century joinery of good quality.

(398) Walls, bounding the garden of No. 26 Endless Street (393) on E. and S., are of brick with weathered brick copings and appear to be of the early 17th century. Additional brickwork above the coping is probably of the 18th century. Piercing the E. wall is an ashlar doorway with a four-centred head and an original oak door studded with iron nails. A similar doorway occurs in the S. wall of the same garden. In 1975 the brickwork was extensively renewed. On the N. the garden is partly bounded by a 16th-century wall (see (396)).

(399) Pheasant Inn and Shoemakers' Hall, of two storeys with timber-framed walls and tiled roofs, are respectively of the late 15th and the mid 17th century. In 1638 Philip Crew, a schoolmaster, bequeathed his house at the corner of Rolleston Street and Salt Lane to the Shoemakers' Company, recommending them to build a guild hall. (fn. 1) A large 17th-century first-floor room to N.W. of the 15th-century house, with a kitchen below it, evidently results from the bequest.

Externally the lower walls of the 15th-century building have been rebuilt in brickwork, and internally many ground-floor partitions have been removed, but in the upper storey much original timber framework remains (Plate 64). The roof of the E. range has tie-beam trusses with cambered collars, curved angle-braces and clasped purlins with wind-braces. In the S. range the gabled E. wall is jettied at the first floor. Coupled roof trusses in the W. part of the S. range suggest that the range originated as two houses. The division has been obliterated below by the widening of a carriage throughway.

The 17th-century guild hall has walls partly timber-framed and partly of brick. The lower storey has been modernised, but the first-floor hall retains its original form. The timber-framed S. wall contains two windows, each of two double-transomed lights with ogee-moulded timber surrounds; the openings, now partly blocked, originally reached from the floor to the wall-plate. An original fireplace in the N.W. corner of the hall has been blocked up and a modern fireplace has been built on the E., using old bricks. A 17th-century full-length portrait of Philip Crew hangs in the hall.

(400) Cottages, two adjoining, Nos. 11 and 13 Salt Lane, are of two storeys with walls of timber framework and of brick, and with tile-covered roofs. They are of the 16th century but have been much altered. Inside, No. 13 retains an original flint and ashlar chimneybreast.

(401) Cottage, No. 9, of two storeys with rendered brick walls and a tiled roof, is of the early 19th century. Two dormer windows in the S. front have wood heads imitating mediaeval window tracery.

(402) Cottages, pair, Nos. 5 and 7, of two storeys with brick walls and slate-covered roofs, are of c. 1850.

(403) Cottages, pair, Nos. 1 and 3, of two storeys with brick walls and slate-covered roofs, are of c. 1850.