ColchesterHistoricBuildingsForum

Location

(Jaggers' list)
Public house in Neo Tudor style which reflects something of the plan and appearance of the C15/C16 building which it replaced and in the late 19th-century street directories is listed as the 'Ancient House' (no 66a North Hill). The front of the pub was restored in 1911 (ERO D/B 6 Pb3/2954). The building was then rebuilt in 1939 (ERO D/B 6 Pb3/7780, D/B 6 Pb3/7950, D/B 6 Pb3/7932, and D/B 6 Pb3/7965).
With its neighbour, the former Post Office, this is a significant and eye-catching building at the end of the High Street and the top of North Hill. The two buildings reflect Colchester's bygone tradition of timber-framed housing.

[JB] Architects for rebuilding (1937-8, according to the drawings in ERO) were Riley & Glanfield, a London firm, who also designed the Bell, Old Heath (now a burnt-out shell) and the Kings Arms, Elmstead, both for the Colchester Brewing Co. [JB]

Nos 66-70 form a group.

Location

(Jaggers' list) Two-storey brick house with basement which caused complications with floor levels at ground level. Oriel window at 1st floor with deep sash windows. Probably c 1900. Very unusual building; striking. Nos 55-65 form a group, of which nos 55-60 and 61 are listed buildings.

[Old postcard (after July 1904, as shows tram and tram cables) with kind permission of J Jephcott.]

Location

(Jaggers' list)

A building in need of investigation. Peg-tile roof with cement render on the front. Two mid C19 windows are probably later inserts. A badly debased front could belie a significant building underneath. Could be timber-framed and C17 or earlier. Perhaps an under-built jetty. The double-doors on the left may correspond to a cart or carriage entrance.
Nos 55-65 form a group, of which nos 55-60 and 63 are listed buildings.

Location

(Jaggers' list)

Timber-framed building with peg-tile roof.
The building originated as a 15th- or early 16th-century open hall-house of at least two bays with a cross-passage and (presumably) a two-storeyed service end of uncertain shape and plan. The hall-house appears to have been converted into a lobby-entrance house in the 17th century when a floor was inserted into the hall to create a two-storey block and a brick chimney-stack was built in the cross-passage to heat the new rooms in the old lobby and service end. The latter was replaced perhaps at the same time by the present three-bayed crosswing which has a jettied south gable wall. Two extensions were added later: a small two-storeyed one perhaps of the 18th century and a single-storeyed 19th-century building which was probably a stable. Around 1876-7, the crosswing was adapted with the insertion of large windows and double doors on both floors to create a warehouse-cum-workshop for upholsterer Charles Day. A few years later, Day had to sell up because of debt and his warehouse became a workshop for the manufacturing of boots and shoes at first by George Pung Hazel, then by G P Halls, and finally by Rose and Co Boot and Shoe Manufacturers, a company which primarily produced (and still produces, in Colchester) advertising calendars.
[RS frame survey - published (in CAT Report 552; http://cat.essex.ac.uk/summaries/CAT-0552.html)]

The crosswing is now part of the North Hill Hotel and stands in the yeard behind the main building. For full details, see http://cat.essex.ac.uk/summaries/CAT-0552.html

Location

(Jaggers' list)
Early C20. Mock Tudor house. Acts as an important stop at the end of a run of buildings down the hill of high townscape value. May reflect something of its predecessor as does the Waggon and Horses pub nearby rather than simply be Mock Tudor. Good building; has character. More research needed.
Nos 45-52 form a group, of which nos 45-49 and 51 are listed buildings.

Location

(Jaggers' list)
An attractive three-storey building of brick with slate roof. Probably c 1800-1850. The first-floor windows have been replaced. The shopfront has been been renovated making it difficult to be determine its original detail. However its basic form suggests that it is a later insertion although still relatively early. Makes an important contribution to the street scene.
Nos 45-52 form a group, of which nos 45-49 and 51 are listed buildings.

Location

(Jaggers' list)
Brick house with peg-tile roof with red ceramic ridge tiles. Doorcase with canopy. The use of brick for the walls, the style of windows, and the doorcase combine to suggest a date range of c 1850-60 for the building. However, the peg-tile roof points to a substantial remodelling of an earlier building (early C19 or earlier) in the mid Victorian period.
Nos 32-35a form a group.

Location

Grade II.
C17 building with late C18 grey gault brick front, with parapet, 5-window range of double hung sashes, 2 ground floor bay windows on either side of central Ionic doorcase with fanlight.
Nos 55-63 form a group, of which nos 55-60 are listed buildings.??

Location

Grade II*.
Original building dates from 1650, the front block rebuilt mid C18. This is of red brick 2 storeys, parapet, heavy wood modillioned eaves cornice, 2 symmetrical 2 storeyed bay windows; the centre front breaks forward under a pediment and has an upper storey Venetian window with brick mouldings and thick section glazing bars, the central Tuscan doorcase is approached by a flight of steps with one handrail, and has an open pediment, arched entrance, fanlight and 6-panel door. The interior has an early C18 staircase and some contemporary panelling. The C17 rear wing has original ceiling beams.

Ref. in 'Essex', Pevsner/Bettley 2007, p 289.

Nos 55 to 60 (consec) form a group.

Location

Grade II. C17 building, much rebuilt in C18 with face of red brick, 2 storeys and attics, the roofs tiled, cellars. The front is divided into 2 parts and the south part has 2 storeys, 2 dormers, parapet, band below, 2-window range of double hung sashes with glazing bars. The north part, at a lower level, has 2 storeys, coping, band between the storeys, 2-window range of double hung sashes with glazing bars, good Georgian doorcase with pediment head, decorated frieze and clustered pillars. The ground floor has a new 3-light sash with glazing bars. Nos 55 to 60 (consec) form a group. [THIS ENTRY NEEDS IMAGE OF BOTH PARTS OF NO 59]

Ref. in 'Essex', Pevsner/Bettley 2007, p 289.

[From 1764 until c 1787, no 59 was a residence of Sir Edmund Affleck, R.N., M.P. for Colchester Borough, died 1788; he owned a house in London and also Fingringhoe Hall ('Colchester people - the John Bensusan-Butt biographical dictionary of eighteenth-century Colchester', vol. 1, ed. by S D'Cruze, 2009).]