22 Church Street, Ampthill, Bedfordshire: Historic Building Recording

In accordance with advice from the CBC Archaeologist, the planning conditions included a pre-commencement condition (no. 2), requiring a programme of historic building recording and archaeological monitoring: A record of the outbuildings in accordance with the requirements of the planning condition and the methodology set out in the WSI approved by the LPA. The buildings were recorded by means of a photographic and measured survey in accordance with the requirements of relevant elements of a Level 3 survey as defined by Historic England (2016). Number 22 Church Street stands on the north side of the street. The two-storey, timber-framed house stands on the street frontage, side-on to the road with a carriageway through the east end of the house. At the rear, a continuous range on the west side of the plot consists of a two-storey service block abutting the back of the house with former stables that are the subject of this report making up the northern part of the range. The stable range is centred on OS grid reference TL 0357 3819. The outbuildings that form the subject of this report consist of a stable range to the north of a kitchen/service range at the rear of the house. The outbuildings consist of three compartments: C1, a brick-built stable with loft over; C2, a timber-framed stable with a partial loft over; and C3, a store or coach house, which is largely of brick and which formerly contained a loft. The stables outbuilding range measures c.17.7m long by 5m wide overall. 16th-century fabric The earliest fabric in the stable range dates from the 16th century. This consists of four bays of a timber-framed structure, probably part of an originally longer structure which extended to the north. It contains jowled storey-posts and a tiebeam with deeply curved inverted arch braces. The most complete remains are in the east elevation. The structure appears to have been constructed as a maltings. This is indicated by evidence for a ground floor with a low ceiling height, a characteristic of historic maltings where it was intended to give an even temperature during the malting process. Evidence for the former floor consists of mortises in the storey posts that would have supported a floor approximately 1.7m above the present ground level. 19th-century fabric Nineteenth-century alterations to the stable range at 22 Church Street comprise: the construction in brick of the south compartment (C1) with a hayloft over; insertion of an internal brick partition to form two compartments in the north of the range (C2 and C3); the partial rebuild of the west wall of C2, which was encased externally in brick; the rebuild in brick of the west wall of C3 to form a curved shape to the north-west corner of the range; the insertion of a hayloft over part of C2 and all of C3; and the reroofing of the stable range with a shallow-pitch tiled roof. 20th-century fabric The former public house had become a private residence by the early 20th century. The rebuilding in brick of the northernmost section of the east elevation is likely to date from the late 19th or early 20th century. Historical photographs from c.1910 show this wall in its present form. Significance The assessment and subsequent investigation of 22 Church Street has provided previously unknown information about these buildings. The street range has been identified as a hall house dating from the 15th or early 16th century, making it one of the earliest buildings in Ampthill and of considerable historical significance. The stable outbuildings contain part of a 16th-century, timber-framed structure with the characteristics of a purpose-built maltings. Identifiable maltings of this date are very rare. The building was substantially rebuilt during the 19th century.

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