Fisherton Street

Fisherton Street

(476) Ashlar Walls, part of the Gaol which stood from the 16th century until about 1840 on the W. bank of the R. Avon, immediately S. of Fisherton Bridge, probably date from 1783 when Quarter Sessions ordered the construction of 24 new cells. (fn. 1) The two surviving walls, of finely dressed ashlar with moulded plinths and a weathered and hollow-chamfered string-course, include two small iron-barred windows. Reset in the masonry is a small stone panel carved to represent gyves (Plate 20); probably it was the embellishment of a doorway. Above rises a clock-tower of 1890.

After the construction of the County Gaol (24) in 1818–22 the old gaol buildings were used for a short time as part of the Infirmary (22). The greater part had been demolished by 1843 (Tithe Map).

(477) House, No. 32 Fisherton Street, called 'Genl. Michell's' on the Tithe Map, is of two storeys with attics and has brick walls and tiled roofs. Dating probably from the second quarter of the 18th century, it has been used as a shop and somewhat disfigured; nevertheless several original features remain. In the S.W. front the square-headed doorway with a panelled and bolection-moulded surround, and three plain sashed windows survive; above is a moulded cornice and parapet. Inside, the plan was originally of class U. The S. room on the ground floor retains a plaster ceiling with delicate rococo enrichment. The main stairs have Tuscan-column balustrades and dados with fielded panelling. On the first-floor landing is an archway with a moulded and enriched elliptical head and panelled jambs. The staircase ceiling has an acanthus cornice and a mask surrounded by a sun-burst. Several first-floor rooms have 18th-century joinery.

(478) House, No. 40, of two storeys with slate-hung timber-framed walls and tiled roofs, is of the early 16th century. The plan is L—shaped, with a S. range parallel to the road and a rear wing on the north. The roof of the S. range is said to have arch-braced trusses, but is inaccessible; the S. elevation is masked by a modern front. In the N. wing the upper storey was originally jettied on the E., but it has been under-built. The N. gable is masked by an early 19th-century extension. Inside, a ground-floor room in the S. part of the N. wing has a stone fireplace surround with a four-centred head. The next room on the N. has original moulded timber wall-plates and intersecting moulded beams forming a ceiling of four panels; the walls have oak panelling, probably of 17th-century origin, altered in the 18th century; the fireplace and a doorway are flanked by fluted pilasters. In its original form the 19th-century N. extension comprised a first-floor room supported on iron columns over an open porch, but the porch has been enclosed to make a ground-floor room.

(479) Houses, range of four, Nos. 21–7, on the S. side of the street, are three-storeyed with rendered brick walls and slate-covered roofs; they appear to have been built early in the 19th century. Above modern shop-windows each storey of the N. front has uniform square-headed sashed windows.

(480) Houses, range of five, Nos. 29–39 (No. 35 is a through-passage giving access to an adjacent building (481)), are two-storeyed with attics and have brick walls and tiled roofs. They appear to have been built early in the 19th century and originally were approximately uniform. In the N. fronts the lower storeys have modern shop-windows, but the upper storeys retain original square-headed sashed windows with keystones.

(481) Club Room, originally a Primitive Methodist Chapel, is of one storey and has rendered brick walls and a slate-covered roof. Built in 1826, it was extended on the S.W. after 1843 (V.C.H., Wilts. vi, 193). The hall is lit by round-headed windows, formerly with timber mullions and pointed casements.

(482) Houses, range of three, Nos. 41–5, are two-storeyed and have brick walls and tiled roofs. They were built towards the end of the 18th century, but have been extensively altered.

(483) House, No. 47, of two storeys with attics, has rendered and tile-hung timber-framed walls, and tiled roofs in two ranges ridged N.E.—S.W. It is of 16th-century origin, but the ground floor has been extensively altered. The upper storey and attics are derelict.

(484) Houses, two adjacent, Nos. 55–7, of two storeys with attics, have rendered brick walls and tiled roofs. They were built during the first half of the 18th century and have plain N. street-fronts, each with two sashed first-floor windows; the lower storeys have modern shop-windows. On the ground floor the houses are separated by a covered through-passage giving access to a yard.

(485) House, divided into three tenements (Nos. 59–63) during the late 18th or early 19th century, is two-storeyed with rendered brick walls and tiled roofs; it was built about the middle of the 17th century. The N. elevation has a 19th-century facade of three bays; the S. side is masked by outbuildings. Inside, the original plan has gone, but a staircase retains a short length of original balustrade with three upright planks profiled to represent balusters. The original roof has four stout collared tie-beam trusses with lower king-struts and principals with deep chamfers.

(486) Cottage, No. 65, of two storeys with attics, has timber-framed walls cased in brickwork and a tiled roof. It is probably of late 16th or early 17th-century origin, but little remains of the original structure. The stairs retain three profiled uprights as in monument (485). A few rough-hewn members of timber framework are exposed.

(487) Houses, two adjacent, Nos. 67–9, are three-storeyed with brick walls and slate-covered roofs and were built during the first half of the 19th century.

(488) Cottage, No. 96, on the N. of the street, is of two periods. The N.E. wing, single-storeyed with an attic, with timber-framed walls cased in brickwork and with a tiled roof, is of the 17th century. The part of the house which fronts the street is two-storeyed with brick walls and a slated roof and dates from c. 1800. Inside, the N.E. room has an exposed beam.

(489) House, No. 102, of two storeys with brick walls and a slate-covered roof, is of the 19th century but earlier than 1843 (Tithe Map). The S. front has three plain sashed windows in the upper storey.

(490) House, No. 79, of three storeys with brick walls and slated roofs, was built after 1843 and has recently been demolished.

(491) Cottage, No. 81, of two storeys with brickcased timber-framed walls and a tiled roof, is perhaps of c. 1600. The lower storey is occupied by a modern shop; the upper part of the N.E. front has two 18th-century sashed windows; The roof has chamfered purlins, but all other features are concealed. O.S., 1880 names it the Lamb Inn.

(492) Cottages, range of three, Nos. 89–93, originally single-storeyed with attics, but now two-storeyed, have brick-cased timber-framed walls and tile-covered roofs. The cottages were probably built in the 16th century. In the 18th century the N.E. fronts were cased in brickwork and the attics were made into upper storeys. Both blades of an open cruck truss are seen in the wall between Nos. 91 and 93. Masonry with a large socketed stone at the W. corner of No. 89 is perhaps the footing for another cruck, now gone.

(493) House and Shop, No. 95, of three storeys with brick walls and a slate-covered roof, were built during the first half of the 19th century.

(494) King's Arms Inn, of two storeys with rendered brick walls and a slate-covered roof, is of 18th-century origin, but it was extensively altered in the 19th century and later.

Hayter's Almshouses, see (30).