Site Event/Activity record ECC3592 - A historic building survey of buildings behind the North Hill Hotel, 51 North Hill, Colchester, 2010

Location

Location Buildings behind the North Hill Hotel, 51 North Hill, Colchester
Grid reference Centred TL 993 253 (12m by 15m)
Map sheet TL92NE
County ESSEX
Non Parish Area COLCHESTER, COLCHESTER, ESSEX

Technique(s)

Organisation

Colchester Archaeological Trust Ltd

Date

June 2010

Map

Description

A timber-framed building at the rear of the North Hill Hotel (formerly the Peveril Hotel) was surveyed at English Heritage Level 3 in advance of planned alterations to provide more accommodation and communal space for its residents. <1> The survey revealed the presence of a previously unrecognised hall-house and documentary research showed when and why part of this building had been converted into a 'warehouse'. The building originated as a 15th- or early 16th-century open hall-house of at least two bays with a cross-passage and (presumably) a two-storeyed service end of uncertain shape and plan. The hall-house appears to have been converted into a lobby-entrance house in the 17th century when a floor was inserted into the hall to create a two-storey block and a brick chimney stack was built in the cross-passage to heat the new rooms in the old lobby and service end. The latter was replaced, perhaps at the same time, by the present three-bayed crosswing which has a jettied south gable wall. Two extensions were added later: a small two-storeyed extension perhaps of the 18th century and a single-storeyed 19th-century building which was probably a stable. Around 1876-7, the crosswing was adapted with the insertion of large windows and double doors on both floors to create a warehouse-cum-workshop for upholsterer Charles Day. A few years later, Day had to sell up because of debt and his warehouse became a workshop for the manufacturing of boots and shoes, firstly by George Pung Hazel, then by G P Halls, and finally by Rose and Co Boot and Shoe Manufacturers, a company which primarily produced (and still produces) advertising calendars.

Sources/Archives (1)

  • <1> Historic Building Recording: Crummy, Philip and Shackle, Richard. 2010. Survey of buildings behind the North Hill Hotel, 51 North Hill, Colchester, Essex June 2010. CAT Report 552.

Related Monuments/Buildings (1)

  • Buildings behind the North Hill Hotel, 51 North Hill, Colchester (Building)

Record last edited

Jan 4 2016 8:40AM

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