Building record KSY 053 - 1-4 Ancient Houses

4 Ancient Houses is a grade I listed timber-framed building of considerable historic importance. Dating from the mid-15th century it originally contained a central hall, open to its roof in the manner of a barn and heated by a bonfire-like open hearth, flanked by floored rooms containing a parlour to the right and a shop to the left. The shop was lit by a pair of arched windows, but, perched on the steep hillside, lay well above ground-level and probably operated as a manufacturing workshop in the extensive local cloth industry rather than a retail unit. The chambers above both shop and parlour contained unusually narrow windows in their front elevations and may well have been designed for commercial storage. The internal partition between the hall and shop has been removed, but the medieval arch of the parlour door still survives and the fine ‘open truss’ of the hall remains intact. At 44 feet in overall length by 18 feet in width the house was substantial by the standards of its day, but its plain crown-post and lack of external decoration suggests a mid-status occupant such as a successful artisan or small-scale entrepreneur. In the early-16th century a separate house was built against the left-hand gable of the 15th century structure (1 and 2 Ancient Houses). This building was floored throughout and jettied to the street in the new Tudor fashion, but possessed an identical workshop with two arched windows to the left of its hall. Its hall chimney and parlour were contained in a rear wing which has since been demolished, as at 33 feet in length its plot was not sufficient to accommodate them on the street. At the beginning of the 17th century the two earlier, modest houses were amalgamated to form a single dwelling of much higher status, perhaps indicating that two tenanted properties had become the principal residence of their owner. A large brick chimney was inserted into the 15th century workshop, the two cross-passages were replaced by a lobby entrance, and the medieval hall floored over and converted into a parlour with a ‘closet’ in the original parlour beyond. A pair of exceptional two-storied and gabled bay windows with brick plinths and ovolo-moulded mullions was added to light the new parlour, with a matching single-storied version in the hall. It is chiefly on the basis of these windows that 1-4 Ancient Houses achieved its grade I listing (no. 3 now forms part of no. 4), but the historic importance of the property lies as much in its remarkable evolution and the insight it offers into the development of English street patterns (S1).