Building record 10552/2 - Chester Rows : 10 Bridge Street Row

<1> Chester Archaeology, 1985-1990, Chester Rows Research Project Archive, CHER 10552 (Paper Archive). SCH6789.

No 10 Bridge Street Row is a timber framed town house, currently in use as a shop with offices above, of a mid 17th century date. This is corroborated by a decorative bressumer of 1664 and a fireplace dated 1661.

The Row level town house consists of a modern shop front designed in a pseudo traditional style. The first floors is timber framed with close studwork and a large 15 pane mullion and transom window that is a mid to late 19th century insertion. The second storey is divided from the lower floor by a decorative bressumer dated ‘TC 1664’ with close vertical studwork above, the window in this floor again appears to be a 19th century insertion that penetrates the gable end above.

The Row walkway consists of a low Row that retains many 17th century joists with a wide stallboard approximately 3.57m wide and a Row walk 2.32m wide. The Row front has a wooden balustrade of 19th century date and bay posts, possibly original, in the north and south ends supporting the upper floors.

<2> Brown. A. (ed), 1999, The Rows of Chester: The Chester Rows Research Project (Book). SCH6790.

The initials TC in the carving on the façade are those of Thomas Cowper - an ironmonger and the Mayor of Chester between 1641 and 1642, who owned and worked at the Row house in the 17th century.

<3> Historic England, 2011, The National Heritage List for England, 1376061 (Web Site). SCH6528.

Grade II Listed. Undercroft, town house and small warehouse, now travel shop and office. Visible features C17, late C19 and C20. Timber frame, render and brick, with grey slate roof at right-angles to street. EXTERIOR: 3 storeys. Late C20 shopfront; at Row level the balustrade to the raised stallboard occupies almost the full height of the opening; turned balusters and rail of wood. The stallboard is approx 3m from back to front, including C19 encroachment forward of approx one metre. Painted brick wall banded in stone, 1892, against north end of stallboard; jetty beam one metre from front has 2 empty brace-mortices; the south post has a console to the jetty-beam and a brace to the front; iron stick balusters to south end of stallboard; stone flags to Row walk; joists exposed, with intermediate beam, over stall and Row walk. The rear face to the walk is blank, in brick with indication of close studding. The fascia above the Row opening is moulded; above is a row of 5 quatrefoil panels, probably refixed. The third storey has a slight jetty at sill level; the rendered wall above is painted as if timber-framed with herringbone braces. The jettied rendered gable, painted as if timber-framed with herringbone struts, has shaped fretted bargeboards and finial, probably C19 imitations of C17 elements. INTERIOR: the undercroft is wholly lined in modern cladding; floor level is 3 steps down from street level. The upper storeys are partly lined but probably incorporate much of the C17 timber frame. A void above the modern suspended ceiling of the shop occupies the front part of the Row storey; in the offices behind all features of probable interest are covered. The third storey reveals the former arrangement of the building; a chamber above the Row walk and former Row level shop, a galleried hall open to the roof and a small rear chamber, with former stair. The gallery over the east, north and south of the former hall looks down on the false ceiling of the shop and up to the partly clad roof structure lit by an inserted rooflight. Visible features of the C17 structure include the north wallplate on posts and an inserted corbel, all inside the present north wall which probably dates from the rebuilding of No.8 Street (qv) in 1892; two jowelled posts, now boarded, on the south side and a partly visible tie-beam. A timber post, both wall-plates, a tie-beam, purlins and braces are visible in the rear chamber. Rooms in the former warehouse behind, now offices, are lined and with no features of special interest visible. The rear has no visible features of special interest. (Chester Rows Research Project: Harris R: Bridge Street West, Nos.2-20: Chester: 1989-1990).

<4> Earthworks Archaeological Services, 2022, No. 10 Bridge Street, Chester: Archaeological Monitoring of Geotechnical Test Pits, R4618 (Client Report). SCH9264.

Archaeological monitoring was undertaken in 2022 during geotechnical investigations at no. 10 Bridge Street, Chester, which included the excavation of four test pits and two bore holes. Sandstone bedrock was encountered at depths of between 0.5m and 0.9m below the current internal floor level. Significantly, from these measurements, it can be concluded that although evidently modified in places, the bedrock here has not been reduced to sufficient depth to form an undercroft, cellar or basement beneath the property. Indeed, the sandstone masonry forming the foundations to the south wall of the building were shown to have been set directly upon the underlying bedrock as exposed within test pit 1 and lie at a particularly shallow depth beneath the existing internal floor level. The sandstone foundations are of significance but, as yet, remain undated. Similar conclusions can be drawn from the results of test pits 2, 3 and 4 where the brick foundations to the property were shown to sit directly upon the bedrock at shallow depths below existing floor level.

Archaeological features were encountered in both test pit 1 and test pit 2. These consisted of a truncated pit, or possible posthole, in test pit 1, and a probable drainage channel cut into the surface of the bedrock in test pit 2. Both features produced sherds of pottery dated to the post-medieval period.