Historic Droitwich Its Streets and People

This timber framed building was constructed in about 1600 with a two storey, two or three bay street frontage range on the north of approximately 12 m (40 feet) length by 6 m ( 20 feet) width.  The results of the survey of this building suggest that originally there was another timber frame range to the south  west, which accords with the survival of a small range to the south east. The south west range included two further fireplaces that shared the surviving impressive brick chimney stack of four flues, which retains evidence of a star plan for each of the individual flues.  On the building as it appeared originally, this would have been an impressive and major contribution to the streetscape here; it remains a striking feature of the building, rising above the later three storey 19th century block on the south side. 

The street frontage range had at least two bays of unequal size, just over 4 m and 5 m internally respectively.  Its present form includes an additional bay on the east side of only about 2 m length internally.  The latter may represent a former passageway between the original building and its neighbour, later taken into the structure of this building; or it could be part of the original structure. 

The ground floor and first floor rooms on the west side have elaborate plaster ceilings with geometric designs of intersecting thin plaster ribs.  The ground floor room has a single pattern in which  round-lobed trefoils intersect around an inner ribbon of six long lobes with a concave sided hexagon enclosing it.   The ceiling of the first floor room is divided in two by a west-east encased beam, and has two different patterns:  in the panel north of the ceiling beam towards the street round-lobed trefoils intersect around an inner ribbon of six long lobes, while the ceiling panel towards the chimneypiece on the south side comprises a design of a round-lobed quatrefoil enclosing a concave-sided diamond central piece with fleur-de-lis terminals. 

All three decorative ceilings include the use of heraldic emblems in the corners of their design.  An eagle, mermaid, Tudor rose, ostrich feathers encircled by a coronet, a dove and another so far unidentified bird are each represented. They were all popular devices much used in the late 16th and early 17th century. 

The first floor room is fully panelled in oak, having five tiers of small square panels, with a wider arcaded frieze panel below the cornice.  On its south wall is a superb chimneypiece occupying the full height of the wall and including a fireplace.  Its upper frieze level has three carved brackets dividing the frieze into two panels below the cornice.  Below this is an overmantel with three caryatids, two of them male figures and a female figure in the centre and intervening framed panels each containing a cartouche enclosing a lion’s mask head.   

Below the mantelshelf are three recessed plain panels, then two male caryatids flanking the fire opening.  (A later fireplace with recessed Gothic mouldings has been inserted into the opening.)