Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Grade II listed building. Main construction periods 1800 to 1920

Summary from record TQ 76 NW 271:

Post medieval timber framed house, tenement plot and shop. Grade II listed. A 17th/early 18th century building, much altered internally and externally. Contains some surviving architectural elements.

Monument Types

• HOUSE (Post Medieval to Modern - 1600 AD? to 2007 AD (between))
• SITE (Post Medieval to Modern - 1800 AD to 1920 AD)
• SHOP (Post Medieval to Modern - 1850 AD? to 2050 AD (between))

Full description

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The following text is from the original listed building designation:
ROCHESTER HIGH STREET TQ 7468 NW 7/48 No 24 23.8.74 GV II House with shop. Early C19 front, but with evidence of earlier work (perhaps early C18). Brown brick; parapet with string course. Corrugated iron roof, hipped towards the street. 1st and 2nd floor windows with 12-pane hornless sashes, 6-pane sashes to upper half-storey, all under flat rubbed brick arches. C.1900 shop front with slender posts and deeply recessed central doorway, the door with shaped plateglass window; lobby with mosaic floor and decorative plaster ceiling. Inteior with some early-Cl8 panelling.
Listing NGR: TQ7422468704

Description from record TQ 76 NW 271:
House with shop. Early nineteenth century front, but with evidence of earlier work (poss 18th century). Brown brick; parapet with string course. Corrugated iron roof, hipped towards the street. C.1900 shop front with slender posts and deeply recessed central doorway, the door with shaped plateglass window; lobby with mosaic floor and decorative plaster ceiling. Interior with some early eighteenth century pannelling. Listed grade II. [1].

No. 24, is the northern half of a timber framed building dating to at least the 17th century (No.26 being the southern half). In the early eighteenth century the first floor level was raised and the second floor and roof levels were altered. These alterations, along with the continuous patching and repair of the structure with inferior timber, have reduced the options for preserving the building as an integral unit with historical value. At the time of the survey a lock-up shop occupied the lower ground floor, while the rest of the building was in a very dilapidated state.
A small excavation carried out at the time of the 1992 survey, in the dirt floor of the basement, revealed a considerable amount of unstratified Roman finds and features (see TQ 76 NW 359). In its original form the basement was served by two sets of stairs, one of which was later blocked off when a new shop floor was laid, the other was provided with a flush-flap cover. The report suggests that some of the cellar’s brickwork dates to the Georgian remodelling of the building.
The ground floor has been much altered by later changes. Much of this remodelling took place in the Georgian period, using repositioned and/or reused 17th century timbers. The shop front entrance retained details of late 18th/early 19th century shop fittings. These included the splayed front entrance, display windows and mosaic floor, along with the plasterwork above the front door.
Nothing remains of the original structure of the first floor before the present floor level was created, during the remodelling work. The original fireplace was blocked up and replaced by a new fireplace, part of a new chimney stack. The stairwell held a replacement staircase, which was probably contemporary with the raised first floor and new chimney stack. The location of the original stairway from the ground floor to the first floor is unclear. The first floor is connected to the second via a mast-newel stair. This stairway is of oak, with an oak newel post, dating in style from the turn of the 16th to 17th centuries. The report suggests that the staircase could have originally run from the ground to third floors and that the ground floor section was removed, when the first floor was raised. Alternatively it is suggested that during the alterations, the staircase was raised to run from first to third, rather than ground to second floors.
The second floor probably housed the family rooms in the 18th century and a number of 18th and 19th century architectural features survive. The wall adjacent to no.22 shows signs of the early building and roof line. These include the scar of the base of the original pitched roof of the building, which ran at right angles to the street, projecting a gable into the High Street.
The third floor or attic comprises of a main room and a small rear room added much later
The Georgian façade of the building from the High Street consists of the ground floor store front, retaining many 19th century features. The first floor upwards is of fine Georgian brick. At the time of the survey the building had a corrugated sheet iron roof (2).

In November 2002, further building survey work was undertaken. In the ten years between the two surveys the upper floors, which had remained abandoned, had fallen into a derelict and structurally dangerous state; to the point where much of the surviving timber was in an advanced state of decay. Nearly all of the buildings lath and plaster had fallen off or been removed. In addition, a more recent single storey extension within the yard at the rear of the building had been demolished prior to the 2002 survey (the May 2004 survey suggests this extension covered the 19th century (?) cellar at the rear of the main building).
It is suggested that the building was originally three bays in length and three stories in height, before being extensively remodelled in the Georgian period and extended upwards to include a fourth storey. The structure itself is box framed. The report includes an extensive section on the timber framework, which is typical of structures built towards the end of the timber-framed tradition, using reused timber of variable quality. Some of the reused timber on the first floor is of medieval date. The report also suggests that the second floor may have been raised when the building was renovated in the Georgian period. To the rear of the structure traces of the original 17th century roof survive, although it was removed to accommodate the later third floor or attic room. The scar of a dormer gable was also seen in the north west party wall.
The new Georgian frontage comprised of buff bricks laid in Flemish bond, with the window heads of rubbed brick in similar buff colour. The new roof was hidden behind the parapet. It is of a lower pitch than the original roof, hipped to the front and rear and employing reused oak rafters. In the late 19th century the ground floor of the building was given a new shop frontage.
The report concludes that the surviving timber framed structure is of only limited archaeological interest, as it was poorly constructed, with many of the original timbers in an advance state of decay. No in situ fixtures or fittings associated with the original building had survived. No mention is made of the mast newel stair that the 1992 survey recorded, or the cellar which the survey overlooked. The late nineteenth century shop front and Georgian façade, are considered to be the better architectural features of the property [3].

In November and December 2003, further archaeological works were undertaken on the site, both within the cellar and to the rear of the building. The report for these works explains that Canterbury Archaeological Trust was not aware of the original 1992 Lower Medway Archaeological Research Group project or that a cellar associated with the original building existed. It also suggests that 1992 survey had recorded detail lost by the time of Austin’s 2002 survey.
A watching brief was maintained on the excavation of a new drainage trench running along the rear of the property. Close to the building the trench runs across an eighteenth century cellar (which had been floored over by a concrete slab).
This area is presumably the location of a single storey extension to No.24, demolished before the Canterbury Archaeological Trust’s 2002 appraisal. An initial examination showed that the area was covered in a post medieval/modern building deposit. This deposit was partially stripped revealing a sequence of earthen floors of probable post medieval date, although the lower deposits could be late medieval in date. An area of clay, chalk, brick and tile rubble was also recorded, interpreted as an area of modern disturbance. Just south of this deposit, large chalk blocks were visible. They have been interpreted as the foundation material of an earlier wall line, perhaps related to the earthen floor surfaces recorded to the north. By the time of the 2003 report, the rear wall of the standing building had been demolished (see photos in report), allowing a view in to the surviving timber floor of the ground floor.
The second part of the archaeological works involved a more detailed building survey of the cellar beneath no.24. The walls were constructed of brick and chalk blocks, not Kentish ragstone as originally thought (see above). The cellar was entered by two staircases, the northwestern one is now blocked.. The ceiling consisted of reused timbers, together with modern timber, although no mention is made of the ceiling having been raised as the 1992 report suggested.
The report concludes that the mixture of chalk block and brick building materials in the cellar, reflect a single structural phase for both materials and not an earlier medieval phase of cellar. The floor and walls are of seventeenth century date, contemporary with the standing structure above. No attempt was made during this phase of the recording work to examine the Roman deposits beneath the cellar (see TQ 76 NW 359) [4].

In May 2004, further building recording work was undertaken. This consisted of taking notes and photographs of surviving architectural elements on the first, second and attic floor levels. By the date of this survey the rear bay of the former three bay building had been more or less completely dismantled, although it is certain that this bay belonged to the original building. The deterioration of the property can be seen through the survey work undertaken between 1992 and 2002.
For the first floor, the report repeats the assertion that much of the original timber had been replaced. Some of the brickwork seemed to be later seventeenth century, but earlier than the Georgian renovation and new frontage of the building. The middle bay had undergone major changes during the Georgian renovation work (see also the 1992 report). There is a detailed description of the second floor. Of particular note is the stretch of outer wall recorded with plaster on both sides, showing that no.24 was built before no.22, the building of which may well have damaged the earlier lathe and plaster work of no.24. The current attic is of Georgian date, a single room spanning the front two bays and providing access through to the garret room of the rear bay of the seventeenth century building (now removed). Renovation work on the building, previously thought to have taken place in the late 18th century is now believed to be of early 19th century date.
The report concludes that a sequence of construction for no.24 and no.22 has been identified. The plot of no.22 was empty at the time of the construction of the original timber framed building of no.24. No.22 was then constructed, presumably with its Georgian façade, before the Garret room and timber frontage of no.24 were dismantled and the attic and Georgian façade constructed. At this time the interior was also remodelled [5].

In October 2004, a watching brief took place at the rear of the tenement plot of no.24 (centred on 574200,168680). The rampart of the first Norman castle (TQ 76 NW 93) had originally run across the bottom of the plot, before terraces had been cut into it for at least one or probably two brick built structures. The latter structure, a workshop, was still present in the 1950's. As the rear walls of the workshop (against the mound) were left in place, little archaeology was observed. A small area of brick floor was recorded, built of the same type of brick used to construct steps leading from the lower terrace, to the upper terraces. It was concluded that as the floor was built of a different type of brick to the standing walls of the later workshop, it was probably related to a smaller structure of late seventeenth or early eighteenth century date (more contemporary with the original post-medieval structure of no.24). This structure was replaced by a larger workshop that survived into the mid twentieth century. Limited other post medieval activity was recorded [6].

English Heritage, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest (Map). SKE16160.

<1> Not applicable, SMR Kent uncatalogued index entry, Extracts from LMARG records, Pers Comm.-KCC, 8/10/92. (Miscellaneous Material). SKE6440.

<2> Lower Medway Archaeological Research Group, 1992, 24 High Street, Rochester. Building recording: May 1992 (Unpublished document). SKE6786.

<3> Canterbury Archaeological Trust, 2002, 24 High Street, Rochester, Kent : An architectural appraisal (Unpublished document). SKE12426.

<4> Canterbury Archaeological Trust, 2004, An archaeological watching brief and recording work at 24 High Street, Rochester (Unpublished document). SKE12427.

<5> Alan Ward, 2004, Building Recording at 24 High Street, Rochester (Unpublished document). SKE12429.

<6> Alan Ward, 2004, An Archaeological Watching Brief at 24 High Street, Rochester (Unpublished document). SKE12436.

Sources and further reading