NHER 40604 (Building record) - Blair House and St Mary's Cottage, Queen Street/Market Place

February 1984. Listed, Grade II.
Listing Description Excerpt:
"Two early 17th century timber framed houses. Rendered with wattle and daub infill and pantiled roof. 2 storeys. Left bay rebated corresponding to cross frame. Doors left and right. 4 ground floor windows, 3 to left are sashes with glazing bars, 1 to right is 20th century casement."
Information from (S1).
Please consult the National Heritage List for England (S1) for the current listing details.
A. Cattermole (NLA), 16 July 2004. Amended by P. Beers (HES), 25 June 2020.

March to April 2004. Building survey.
It appears that Blair House and the adjoining property started as a tripartite medieval hall house of central open hall with the cross passage in the hall and the parlour and service ends in the usual pattern. At some time in the sixteenth century the chimney was inserted in the north end of the hall, probably at the same time as the inserted ceiling and applied frame. Probably rather later, in the seventeenth century, the front wall of the house was remodelled and the hall roof converted from its original crownpost structure to butt purlins, creating a usable attic space which was floored and accessed through the existing stair trap with its contemporary dormer and window.
See report (S2) and photographs in file.
A. Cattermole (NLA), 13 December 2004.

January 2004. Building survey.
St Mary's Cottage is evidently the storeyed end of Blair House, showing the same carpentry features and sharing the surviving parts of the frame. The features of this house suggest a date around 1500 for its construction.
See report (S3) in file.
A. Cattermole (NLA), 13 December 2004.

This seems to be an assembled site as it is probably the property described in 1542 as 'two and a half tofts and half a toft in the same place' and later as part of a 'messuage built and part of a messuage vacant'. The chimney was in decay in 1624 and its repair may have encouraged the 17th century alterations recorded by the survey. It was owned by shearers and a woollen-draper in the late 16th and early 17th centuries and was subdivided shortly before 1695.
See (S4).
M. Dennis (NLA), 10 May 2006.