House Histories
Dating More Bingham Buildings
During the “History of Bingham project we were able to research the age of what were thought to be Bingham’s oldest houses
As part of the subsquent Heritage Lottery Funded “Roots and Development of Bingham project, which supported the digging of 60 archaeological test pits, we were able to include investigations into the age of some more buildings.
Once again BHTA commissioned Trent & Peak Archaeological Unit to carry out the survey of houses of historical interest in Bingham. Richard Sheppard carried out the surveys. Robert Howard of the Nottingham Tree-ring Dating Laboratory inspected the buildings to see whether they might be dated through dendrochronology. As the page on the principles of dendrochronology points out, this is not always possible. A number of properties we investigated did not yield datable timber for one reason or another. Quite often this was because the timbers are pine which needs a very large sample of cores to give a reliable date.
2 Fairfield Street (Ash Accounting)
7 Market Street (Ian Peat)
The Chesterfield Arms
The Bingham pub
9 Church Street
40 Long Acre
Seymour Cottage, 16 Church Street
55 Long Acre (Bingham Nursery). Here there were some splendid Elm beams, but
unfortunately there is no available reference collection for Elm in Nottinghamshire)
For those that could be dated, summaries of the findings are below. Each detailed report can be found following the appropriate link. In some case there was only a dendrochronology report (D), in some only an architectural analysis (A) and for some there were both (AD).
Click here for a map of locations listed. We have used the tithe map of 1840/1 as it generally shows the historical footprint referred to in each report.
GENERAL CONCLUSIONS
Individual Properties
(to access the full report for each property click on the blue underlined heading)
37-39 Long Acre, Bingham Old Post Office (AD)
Beams dated as shown in phasing plan. There were three main phases of building:The
house originally belonged to the Needham family ,who were rich yeoman farmers.
Later owned by Oliver family of maltsters and bobbin net makers. Then became
a hotel (“The Vaults”) and in 1936 became the post office.
Has new lease of life as dwellings and retail with the “Old Post Office
Yard” courtyard of shops, one of which makes excellent use of the inglenook
fireplace.
Parr’s Close, 21 Church Street (AD)
Two purlins in the roof with a felling date of 1309. These are almost certainly
re-used, but may have come from a pre-existing building on this site.
The beams in the kitchen could not be dated.
The north side was standing in 1776, the south range was probably added in the
early 19th century.
The southern extension added two formal rooms and a new staircase. The change
in size of brickwork can be seen clearly on the west gable wall.
An alternative interpretation is that the “southern “extension”
is a Victorian re-fronting. The photograph at 19 Church Street shows a thatched
cottage here. When a new window was inserted in the east wall narrow bricks
were found on the inside of the wall.
For much of the 18th and 19th centuries it was the (probably tied) house of
the miller for the windmill at the top of Tithby Road.
Until the mid-1800s a thatched cottage stood in the east garden.
19 Market Place (The Pizza shop) (AD)
The oldest pizza parlour in Bingham!
Earliest timber 1603-1628.
Roof purlin 1635-1640.
Beams dated 1752-1782 and may be reused.
Structural and architectural evidence suggests mid-17th century.
Originally a basic 2 room and stair turret plan with a brick barrel roofed cellar.
In 1776 the plot was occupied by Francis Culley. Parish registers show him to
have been a labourer and married to Mary. Francis died in 1788 (aged 76) and
Mary in 1789 (82); they had several children, none of whom outlived them.
Thomas Wood, well known gravestone carver, lived here in the 1790s, his daughter-in-law
is listed as occupant in 1841 tithe returns. Family successors turned to painting
and decorating, one of them adding the shop. Long term residents of Bingham
will remember it as being Gray’s decorator's premises until the 1970s.
Beauvale House, 16 Market Place (AD)
Some main timbers on the ground floor dated to 1719. A common joist in the
old kitchen dated to 1574-1599. The fireplace here shows evidence of a former
bake oven. Eight other timber samples failed to give a date.
Beauvale House is an enigma. The map of 1776 shows it well east of its current
position but the evidence shows it to have been built before 1776. The site
was derelict in 1586.
It is on the site of the original Manor House and has a 4 feet thick east stone
wall. The cellar has substantial stonework. Two pits in the garden and one next
door found the foundations and floors of the de Bingham’s manor house.
It was one of many village centre farmhouses and was occupied for many years
by the Pacey family. The building was significantly remodelled in the mid 19th
century and an east facing entrance replaced with the present one with a cast
iron porch. This was probably in preparation for the sale of land in 1865 for
numbers 18 and 18a next door.
The Manor House, 22 Market place (AD)
Beams and purlins dated to 1645-1752 with a probable felling date of 1752.
Manor Cottage is probably earlier and was John Bradshaw’s first house.
He was a rich plumber, and his son probably built the Manor House, which was
originally two rooms with a staircase turret. The two properties were soon joined
as one.
The front is header-bond brickwork, unique in Notts with curious convex feature
which no-one can explain. Should be a central front door, but entrance was probably
at the back in the turret.
We did not examine the house. However two beams in the outhouses produced dates
of 1640 and 1762. The rear of the house dates from about 1700, the front from
1865. Some outbuildings look 18th century.
The beams were probably re-used, but from where? Maybe from the original front
portion of the house replaced in 1865?
The old bakehouse with a large oven in the cellar.
One beam in the western range dated to 1718-1743.
Two building phases. West wing nearer 1718 than 1743. There was a door onto
Newgate street. East wing probably 1830-1880.
Old bake oven is in cellar of eastern wing and is thought to date from about
1810, but could be mid-1700s.
But in 1776 it was leased to Robert Brice as a “bake house only”.
The oven itself is made of narrow 18th century bricks and may be original or
re-used from the original structure. The front of the oven is 1810-1830 with
a side flue, one of the earliest of that new type in the country.
We do not know why it is in the cellar!
We think the oven continued in use until the mid-1900s and long term residents
may remember the Martin family who ran it.
Seymour Cottage, 16 Church Street (A)
All exposed timbers are of pine, which cannot be dated unless there is a large
sample size i.e. a very large house.
The brickwork suggests a mid-18th century date. It is shown on the 1776 survey
as being held by William Brooks. A newspaper carried this epitaph for him: “He
was endowed with great abilities, of strict veracity and was skilled in Philology
and Polite Literature.”
The house originally extended westwards over the present driveway. Most of the
lower brickwork of the west wall has been rebuilt following idemolition. It
is another Bingham house with a staircase turret to the rear. now occupied by
a modern steel spiral staircase.
In the late 1800s William Coy and his family lived here. He was a Market Gardener.
His address was “Church Gate”.
One beam in a bedroom and one in the kitchen dated to 1650.
The house was not included in the architectural survey, but is clearly Georgian,
from about 1780.
The 1776 survey showed two long buildings either side of the plot but no house.
Thus the beams were probably re-used, possibly from these buildings.
This was another village farmhouse, occupied by John Timm, a substantial farmer
who married the widow Oliver from 39 Long Acre. The farm passed to Thomas Lee
who held about 200 acres. It was later in the hands of farmer Arthur Gillott
after whom Gillotts Close was named when the crown sold the farm and home close
for development.
We only did a tree ring dating exercise here. The house is clearly mid 18th century; the only datable beam was felled between 1232 and 1252 and was clearly reused to good effect in a cupboard!