NHER 19447 (Monument record) - Site of medieval merchant's house, 8 Purfleet Street

Timber framed street range, facade rebuilt in 19th century brick, ground floor shop or workroom. At rear at right angles, three-cell range including open hall with fine 14th century crownpost roof.
Demolished 1966.
Information from [2] via [1].
E. Rose (NAU), 23 August 1983.

Early 1960s. Building survey.
(S1) states that this building probably belonged to a medieval merchant. This property had a house fronting onto the street with a high ground storey which contained the shop. Access to the rear of the site was by passageway down the side of the building, and there was a warehouse beyond the house because at the time of construction there was insufficient room for it on the riverbank opposite. The whole tenement seems to have been built with a range of uniform width, changing almost imperceptibly from house to warehouse. The house extended into the warehouse simply by partitioning, making new door openings and improving the style of the windows.
No. 8 Purfleet Street was planned with the intention of using the street frontage for trade. It was roughly contemporary with or perhaps a little later than Hampton Court (which dates from the early 14th century). A south-facing range of the house, of which the front wall had been rebuilt in brick in the 19th century, lay parallel to the street. It was two, and possibly at one time three, storeys high, and the upper floors bridge an entry passageway which led in from the street on the east. The ground floor of this section had recently been gutted, but the great height of this storey suggests its use as a shop or workroom or warehouse with direct access to the street. The upper storeys were timber-framed and almost certainly jettied, making one, or possibly two, spacious rooms over the shop. The hall range was of three cells, at right-angles to the street running along the western boundary of the plot, leaving a narrow passageway on the east via which the building was entered. The hall itself was separated from the street range by a two-storeyed section, the upper room of which was jettied into the hall. In the partition beneath the jetty was the only evidence of original internal doorways comprising two side-by-side door openings with pointed arch heads. The hall was two roof bays long and open to full height, with a late 14th century carved crownpost truss over the centre. The hall ended on the north with a timber partition. Beyond that the building continued another 12.2m (40 feet) but had been very much altered internally, so it is not possible to know how far beyond the hall the original living accommodation extended. By the 17th century the whole range had been taken into the dwelling house as the detailing of the window frames showed, but when first built most of this section is likely to have been used as a warehouse.
All traces of medieval window and door openings had disappeared from the outside walls. These were of stone, rebuilt in patches in brick. There was no sign of a medieval chimney, the two axial stacks being late insertions, and no sign of smoke blackening either against the stone walls of the hall or in the roof. A detached kitchen may have been used for preparation of the household's food, with heating being provided by braziers.
The roof of this building was entirely of fir. This building contained probably the earliest surviving hall truss in Lynn, where the crown posts and collar purlin were used in conjunction with scissor-bracing.
See (S1) for further details, plans, sections, elevations and reconstruction drawings.
A. Cattermole (King's Lynn UAD), 19 July 2019.