St. Nicholas' Road

Ancient and Historical Monuments in the City of Salisbury. Originally published by Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London, 1977.

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'St. Nicholas' Road', in Ancient and Historical Monuments in the City of Salisbury, (London, 1977) pp. 130-131. British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/rchme/salisbury/pp130-131 [accessed 24 March 2024]

St. Nicholas' Road

(325) House, demolished in 1964, was of two storeys with brick walls and tiled roofs; it dated from the first quarter of the 19th century. The nearly symmetrical three-bay E. front had a central doorway and segmental-headed sashed windows.

(326) Myrfield House, of three storeys with brick walls and slate-covered roofs, was advertised as new-built in 1813 (S.J., 4 Oct.); until recently it was the property of the Dean and Chapter. The symmetrical three-bay S. front, of grey brick in contrast to the red brick sides and rear, has a central doorway enclosed in a scrolled wrought-iron porch which partly supports a three-sided first-floor bow window; elsewhere in the S. front there are plain sashed windows. The N., E. and W. walls are without any openings, probably because they overlook the gardens of the former Bishop's Palace. The ground plan, constricted by a narrow site, comprises a central vestibule with one room to E. and one to W. The elliptical staircase at the N. end of the vestibule is lit by a window in the roof. To E. and W. of the house, singlestoreyed ranges with cellars are of the 18th century and originally were cottages and shops.

(327) De Vaux House, of two storeys with an attic, with walls of ashlar, flint and brickwork and with tiled roofs, is mainly of c. 1700, but it incorporates late mediaeval walls which probably survive from a building associated with De Vaux College, Domus de Valle Scholarium (1260–1542). (fn. 1). A plan of c. 1825 names the site 'Magdalen Penitentiary'. (fn. 2)

(327) De Vaux House

Ground floor.

The N. wall, mainly of flint with some original tile coursing, includes a mediaeval chimneybreast. The N.E. corner has an ashlar quoin and a small square-set buttress of one stage with weathered capping. The brick-faced E. front has an ashlar plinth of uncertain date and several 18th-century windows; a doorway with a pointed head is of the 19th century. The W. elevation, of rubble and brick, was rebuilt in the 18th century. The tile-hung S. wall is of uncertain date.

Inside, the N. fireplace has jambs partly stone and partly brick, and a chamfered oak bressummer. Beams and joinery throughout the house are of c. 1700 and later; one room has an oak chimneypiece made up with early 17th-century carved panelling and uprights. The roof has a collared tie-beam truss with queen-struts.

(328) House, No. 8 St. Nicholas' Road, is of two storeys and has walls partly of brick and rubble and partly tile-hung. The roofs are tiled. The walls and roof include mediaeval material which probably survives from the Domus de Valle Scholarium (see (327)), but the row of mediaeval windows shown in an engraving of c. 1834 is no longer seen. (fn. 3) Nevertheless, Hall's assertion that 'the whole edifice is now demolished' is inaccurate.

The lower part of the S. front, of flint and rubble with bands of tile laid in herringbone coursing, includes the chamfered jambs and sill of a former window, probably mediaeval; the upper storey is masked by mathematical tiles. In the gabled E. wall a three-light stone window, probably of the 17th century, has been made into a doorway. An ashlar quoin at the N.E. corner is probably mediaeval. A brick bay projecting near the middle of the N. elevation is of the 17th century. Inside, the rooms have nothing earlier than the second quarter of the 19th century, but the roof includes stout smoke-blackened rafters with mortices in positions to suggest a former scissor-braced rafter roof; they are probably of the 13th century. Two undated 19th-century plans are preserved. (fn. 4)

(329) House, adjoining the foregoing on the W., is partly two-storeyed and partly single-storeyed with an attic and has brick walls and tiled roofs. The two-storeyed N. elevation, probably of the first half of the 18th century, is symmetrical and of three bays with a square-headed central doorway flanked by gauged brick pilasters and with segmental-headed sashed windows in both storeys; all openings have brick flat arches with keystones; the window sills in the upper storey have brick aprons. Flanking the elevation are two giant RomanDoric pilasters of gauged brickwork with stone capitals supporting triglyph frieze-blocks and a moulded stone cornice. The modern S. elevation includes reset fragments of an 18th-century stone frieze of unknown provenance. To the W. is a modern extension. Inside, a room is lined with 17th-century oak wainscot brought from elsewhere.

(330) De Vaux Place, terrace of six houses, each of three storeys with attics and with rendered brick walls and slate-covered roofs, was built c. 1830 probably by John Peniston; site-plans for the project are among Peniston's papers in W.R.O. (fn. 5) Inside, the houses have simple joinery and plasterwork of the period, but the westernmost contains an oak staircase balustrade of c. 1730 with a fist-shaped curtail and fluted columnshaped newel posts and balusters, evidently brought from elsewhere. (fn. 6) A stone in the garden wall of the adjoining house is inscribed 'Queene .....eth 1585'.

(331) Cottages, pair, Nos. 16 and 18, of three storeys with attics, with walls partly of timber framework and partly of brick (Plate 19), were originally one house; it was built late in the 16th or early in the 17th century. The embankment of Ayleswade Bridge causes the entrances to be at first-floor level. The second floor is jettied on the east. Inside, an original chimneybreast occurs about the middle of the W. wall, but its openings have been blocked; the existing fireplaces in the gabled N. and S. ends of the range are of the 19th century.

(332) Houses, two adjacent, Nos. 9 and 11, of three storeys with brick and tile-hung walls and with slate-covered roofs, were built early in the 19th century. In the S. elevation the W. part of the lower storey, of ashlar, is of 1774 (see monument (17)).

St. John's Chapel, see (11), p. 45.

Ayleswade Bridge, see (17), p. 51.

St. Nicholas's Hospital, see (26), p. 54.

Footnotes

  • 1. W.A.M., xlvi (1934), 637–51; V.C.H., Wilts. iii, 369–85.
  • 2. W.R.O., 451/170.
  • 3. Hall, Memorials, plate xvii; W.A.M., xlvi (1934), opp. 650.
  • 4. W.R.O., 451/170; 451/174.
  • 5. W.R.O., 451/170.
  • 6. cf. R.C.H.M., Dorset III, lxii.