45-47 Mill Street, Leominster

Why the building matters

Historical development

Leominster traces its origins to the establishment of a religious house there during the C7 or earlier. The Saxon settlement endured repeated Viking raids and is recorded as a sizeable town in the Domesday Book (1086), with 27 households. In the early-C12, King Henry I established a Benedictine Priory in the town and granted a foundation charter for the town’s market. The town thrived throughout the later medieval period, despite periodic unrest due to its location in the border region. Leominster wool was prized across Europe and bestowed considerable wealth upon the town. The town centre retains many medieval and early-modern buildings; secular buildings are timber framed while surviving Priory buildings are constructed of local sandstone. The town centre retains an essentially medieval street pattern, with long, narrow burgage plots fronting the north-south spine road of Broad Street-High Street-South Street, and Corn Square (the historic market place) lying to the east of the High Street. Mill Street runs from Bridge Street in the west to the Ludlow Road going out of town in the east. The street is named after the corn mill which was in the middle of the street on its south side. The stream which powered the mill ran parallel with Mill Street, but in the mid-C20 the stream was diverted and the mill demolished. Numbers 45, 47 and 49 Mill Street are three attached properties which appear to be a row of cottages of turn-of-the-C19 date, though internal evidence from numbers 45 and 47 shows them to be much older. Number 49 is at the east end of the group and has a higher eaves level with a hip to the front of its roof rather than the pitched roofs of the other properties. The buildings are shown on the 1848 tithe map of Leominster, where numbers 45 and 49 extend to their rears (north), with number 49 then having a wing returning to the west enclosing a small rear yard on three sides. The 1887 Ordnance Survey map shows that the building is three properties, with number 45 to the west having lost its rear projection, and the rear wing of number 49 now attached to further outbuildings. Later maps show that between 1902 and 1928 the grouping of outbuildings to the rear of number 49 has grown, and by 1928 number 49 has acquired its single-storey extension to its east elevation. The north wing of number 49 remains connected to these outbuildings on the 1968 map, but it has been demolished by the time of the 1989 edition leaving the outbuildings detached from the house. Reasons for Listing Numbers 45-47 Mill Street, Leominster are listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons: Architectural Interest: * Medieval houses are very rare survivals nationally; * three Medieval trusses demarking the bays of a hall house represents a good degree of survival of a significant proportion of the building’s early fabric. Historic Interest: * the evolution of the building is clearly evidenced from its beginnings as a modest Medieval hall house, through insertion of a chimney and ceiling over the hall, then re-fronting in brick. Group Value: * the building shares group value with the nearby Grade II listed C17 timber framed houses at 29 and 31 Mill St.

People and businesses through time

Architectural evidence and features

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How this record is evidenced

Map location

Current survey photographs

Documentary evidence

Historic England

Official list description

A house (now two properties) of C15 origins with later alterations and additions. MATERIALS: number 45 has brick, stone and rendered walls with concrete roof tiles. Number 47 is in brick and stone with a stone chimney and slate roof coverings. PLAN: rectangular, orientated with the shorter sides to the east and west. Number 47 is extended at its rear to the north. EXTERIOR: the properties are two stories under a pitched roof with a gable to the west. There is a brick dentil course at eaves level. Doors and windows are all C20. The front elevation faces south to Mill Street. At ground floor level numbers 45 and 47 each have a doorway to their left-hand sides, then a single window. Number 45’s window is towards the east, but that of number 47 is immediately right of the door, which is under a small pitched-roof porch. The ground floor of number 45 is in stone, the first floor brick. Number 47 has a few courses of stone below ceiling level in line with number 45, but it is brick above and below this, with the ground floor level showing a bricked-up opening. At first-floor level, both 45 and 47 have a single window; number 45’s is directly above its ground floor window, number 47’s is to the east of the window below it. A large stone stack rises through the south slope of the roof on number 47’s side of its boundary with 45. The west elevation (number 45) is solid, in brick to eaves level with the gable rendered. There is timber framing at first-floor level to the rear, north elevation of number 45 and 47. There is also a late-C20 addition to the rear of number 47. INTERIOR: it is understood that three roof trusses survive (western, central and eastern), all dating before the mid-C16, and likely to be C15. These trusses define two bays of a medieval hall house. The western truss is now the west gable of number 45; it is formed of two principal rafters with a cambered collar and straight tiebeam, with two straight struts between tiebeam and collar. Its eastern (internally facing) side is smoke blackened at its apex, indicating that it at least pre-dates the installation of the C16 ceiling in number 45 (see below), and it could be contemporary with the other two trusses which are both crucks. The central truss is a pair of cruck blades, originally dividing the two-bay hall of the medieval house, now marking the party wall between numbers 45 and 47. Inside number 45, the northern blade of this central truss can be seen on the landing of the quarter-turn winder stair between floors, and the south blade is visible on the ground floor south of the fireplace. The apex of the eastern side of this central truss is visible in number 47 where it shows arch braces going out diagonally from the centre of a collar beam to meet the cruck blades near their tops. The collar has an ogee shape carved to the centre of its base. The cusping decoration at the apex of this cruck truss in combination with similar cusping on the arched bracing and collar give the top of the truss the form of a quatrefoil flanked by trefoils; decoration designed to be seen over the centre of the open hall below. Trenches for (now raised) purlins are on the outer edges of the cruck blades. The west side in number 45 is heavily smoke blackened. The eastern truss is another cruck, originally marking the divide between the second bay of the hall and a possible further service bay to the east, but now in the party wall between numbers 47 and 49. This cruck is visible at first floor level where it has a tiebeam near ceiling level. A re-used, much weathered, formerly external timber carved with quatrefoils has been inserted horizontally below the tiebeam. In number 45 is a large stone fireplace with a C21 timber bressumer at the south end of the party wall between numbers 45 and 47. This has been inserted beneath the central truss, likely at the same time as the ceiling in number 45. This ceiling has two long, stop-chamfered beams with shorter bridging beams forming six panels, and appears to be of C16 date. History Leominster traces its origins to the establishment of a religious house there during the C7 or earlier. The Saxon settlement endured repeated Viking raids and is recorded as a sizeable town in the Domesday Book (1086), with 27 households. In the early-C12, King Henry I established a Benedictine Priory in the town and granted a foundation charter for the town’s market. The town thrived throughout the later medieval period, despite periodic unrest due to its location in the border region. Leominster wool was prized across Europe and bestowed considerable wealth upon the town. The town centre retains many medieval and early-modern buildings; secular buildings are timber framed while surviving Priory buildings are constructed of local sandstone. The town centre retains an essentially medieval street pattern, with long, narrow burgage plots fronting the north-south spine road of Broad Street-High Street-South Street, and Corn Square (the historic market place) lying to the east of the High Street. Mill Street runs from Bridge Street in the west to the Ludlow Road going out of town in the east. The street is named after the corn mill which was in the middle of the street on its south side. The stream which powered the mill ran parallel with Mill Street, but in the mid-C20 the stream was diverted and the mill demolished. Numbers 45, 47 and 49 Mill Street are three attached properties which appear to be a row of cottages of turn-of-the-C19 date, though internal evidence from numbers 45 and 47 shows them to be much older. Number 49 is at the east end of the group and has a higher eaves level with a hip to the front of its roof rather than the pitched roofs of the other properties. The buildings are shown on the 1848 tithe map of Leominster, where numbers 45 and 49 extend to their rears (north), with number 49 then having a wing returning to the west enclosing a small rear yard on three sides. The 1887 Ordnance Survey map shows that the building is three properties, with number 45 to the west having lost its rear projection, and the rear wing of number 49 now attached to further outbuildings. Later maps show that between 1902 and 1928 the grouping of outbuildings to the rear of number 49 has grown, and by 1928 number 49 has acquired its single-storey extension to its east elevation. The north wing of number 49 remains connected to these outbuildings on the 1968 map, but it has been demolished by the time of the 1989 edition leaving the outbuildings detached from the house. Reasons for Listing Numbers 45-47 Mill Street, Leominster are listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons: Architectural Interest: * Medieval houses are very rare survivals nationally; * three Medieval trusses demarking the bays of a hall house represents a good degree of survival of a significant proportion of the building’s early fabric. Historic Interest: * the evolution of the building is clearly evidenced from its beginnings as a modest Medieval hall house, through insertion of a chimney and ceiling over the hall, then re-fronting in brick. Group Value: * the building shares group value with the nearby Grade II listed C17 timber framed houses at 29 and 31 Mill St.

Sources and further reading

1. Historic England, National Heritage List for England entry 1484306

Open questions

1. Can a current photograph be added to record the public elevations and visible historic fabric?