If you have any comments or new information about this record, please email us.

Summary

This house dates in most to the late 17th century, but elements of an earlier building may survive. Surrounding the house is a range of buildings associated with the shipping of merchandise by inland waterways, together with a 19th century canal and wharf.

Monument Type(s):

• HOUSE (Post Medieval - 1540 AD to 1900 AD)
• STABLE (Post Medieval - 1540 AD to 1900 AD)
• WATERCOURSE (Post Medieval - 1540 AD to 1900 AD)
• GRANARY (Post Medieval - 1540 AD to 1900 AD)
• BREWERY (Post Medieval - 1540 AD to 1900 AD)
• WHARF (Post Medieval - 1540 AD to 1900 AD)
• BOUNDARY WALL (Post Medieval - 1540 AD to 1900 AD)

Protected Status:

• Listed Building (II) 1331453: The Merchants House

Full description

1. Merchant's house of two storeys cellar and attics, red and buff brick and clunch, with tiled gabled roof, stands at the E end of a Cut and Wharf and is associated with buildings connected with the shipping of merchandise by inland waterways. The main range of the house dates from the late C17 but elements in the plan and wall structure suggest some survival of an earlier building. A two storey counting house was added on the N before c 1768 (Chapman's Map), partly on the site of former outshut; in the early C19 an extension, probably the second counting-house listed in the sale catalogue of 1858 (CRO R5/7/90), was built adjoining this addition. The house was apparently always linked with the river trade and, before the construction of the main counting house, the E room may have acted as an office with access to the outshut on the N by a doorway, now blocked. The property was acquired in 1805 by Thomas Bowyer from the firm of Barker who may have built the counting house in the C18. Bowyer's diverse business interests were reflected in the buildings and warehouses in the vicinity of the house. Henry Giblin continued the trade after Bowyer's death in1824 and various storehouses were built or rebuilt by him soon afterwards. Buildings, and fragments of buildings, lie to the N and W of the house with which they are associated. Some which survive are shown on the Enclosure Map of 1800 but the majority can be ascribed to Thomas Bowyer (d 1824), they include: a) Granary, 95ft by 18ft of two storeys, red and white brick, pantiled gabled roof, built by Bowyer to hold 3000 quarters of grain; the ground floor was a timber store. The E gable contains a date panel inscribed '1815', and three wall anchors, two forming initials T and B. Original openings have been obscured since the building became a dwelling. b) Storehouse, 37ft by 24ft, of one storey, white brick, slated hipped roof, used for storing salt. The original entrance has been enlarged and another opening added but some windows at a high level retain wooden lattices; built soon after the property's sale in1824.c) Granary, 94ft by 26ft of two storeys and cellar, white brick, slated hipped roof, built in the second quarter of the C19. The cellar contains bins for wine and spirits as specified in the sale catalogue of 1858.d) Shed for deal, 140ft by 17ft, with red brick and clunch walls, open on the N; early C19.e) Stables for 32 horses, with red brick and clunch walls, perhapsC18.f) Lower Coal Yard, boundary wall of clunch, perhaps early C19.g) Brew house, of which only footings remain. h) Lath house, of which end wall in red brick survives. i) House, red brick wall with blocked openings C18.j) Stables, for 30 horses, the brick and clunch S wall of which survives, early C19.Cut and Wharf: a cut 100yds long running NW - SE joins a wharf,90yds long, with white brick and freestone retaining wall on the N side, terminates as turning basin, 35ft wide and 6ft - 8ft deep, partly filled in. At its NW end the cut joins two others: one, the 'Fish Pond', 20ft wide and 8ft deep, runs SW and NE for 220yds to he meet Swaffham Bulbeck Lode; the other, the 'New Cut' or private canal, 270yds long and 30ft wide, runs into the Lode further downstream. The New Cut was constructed soon after 1821 to replace the previous tortuous route by way of the 'Fish Pond', and the retaining walls of the wharf date from the same improvement. See also Conservation section
4. Commercial End was expanded as a fen port by Thomas Bowyer in the early nineteeth century, who bult up a complex of buildings, of which enough remains today to present an image of its former existence. At the N end, on the W side, are a large two storey granary and the Merchant's House, later seventeeth century with later additions, overlooking the lode at the rear, and used as a residence and counting house.

Chase, J.W and Hodrien, R.C., 1970, National Record of Industrial Monuments (Index). SCB60659.

<1> 1858, Sale Catalogue (Bibliographic reference). SCB2816.

<2> DOE, June 1949, DOE (HHR) Newmarket RD, 15 (Unpublished document). SCB5135.

<3> RCHM, 1972, An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in the County of Cambridgeshire. Volume II. North-East Cambridgeshire, 109 - 110 (plan, photo, map) (Bibliographic reference). SCB13360.

<4> Balchin, N. and Filby, P., 2001, A Guide to the Industrial Archaeology of Cambridgeshire & Peterborough, E 33, p. 33 (Bibliographic reference). SCB19119.

Sources and further reading

Search results generated by the HBSMR Gateway from exeGesIS SDM Ltd.