NHER 16213 (Building record) - No 7 Market Place

No 7 Market Place.

June 1980. Field Observation.
Visited by E. Rose (NAU) at request of South Norfolk District Council.
South façade to street modern with mock-Tudor timbering, but slight jetty to second floor could be genuine. Rear inaccessible. Inside, three storeys, central stack with one room to west and two to east on each floor - suggests an original hall house plan possibly. South Norwich District Council state that this is improbable as the buildings in this area were destroyed by fire in the early 17th century. Spiral staircase on south side stack, closets on north, with that on first floor having a small blocked window. On ground floor part of very large fireplace revealed, later divided into two, some bricks yellow and full of straw and occlusions; others red. These appear 16th century but could of course be reused. It is on west of stack in 19th-century butchers shop (original kitchen?). On east side a small fireplace of later date. On first floor the west fireplace is much later but the east could be 17th century. Their flues do not join into the main stack on this level. No fireplaces on second floor - reused timbers battened over the stack. South Norfolk District Council believes this floor to be a later insertion. Roof recent. One ceiling beam on ground floor 17th century. Also a cellar - flat timber roofed, brick arch over stairs; not of great age?
To be restored, but with removal of the large fireplace.
Compiled by E. Rose (NAU), 4 June 1980. Information from record card (S1).
Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 21 March 2022.

In the event whole building demolished except for façade - upper part chimney and upper floor to be preserved and replaced.
Photographs in file.
Information from record card (S1).

June 1998. Field Observation.
Visit.
In the light of the many buildings examined since 1980 this would seem to be the standard three-cell, off-centre stack, two storey 17th-century house, but for the fact that the large fireplace was on what would be considered the parlour side of the stack. This was certainly not a parlour fireplace. It may perhaps, as suggested above, have been a kitchen if the building was of later 17th-century date. The 'reused 16th-century bricks' sound more like the unfired bricks often found in stacks.
E. Rose (NLA), 3 June 1998.