Earlier this year Wiltshire Buildings Record undertook a recording of 1-3 Northgate Street, Devizes. In November 2024 no.2 Northgate Street was gutted by fire. This spread to nos.1 and 3 on either side, partly destroying the roofs and some of the attic floor at no.3. All three buildings are listed, no.3 at grade II*, and all were considered fine examples of later 18^th and early 19^th century polite architecture. No.3 is especially interesting; in the 16^th century Devizes was known as a centre for the cloth industry, and it may have been Robert Waylen who bought the site of Northgate Mill nearby and all the buildings on it, including no.3 Northgate Street where he lived. He likely transformed the old building into the present 3-storey town house, which stayed in the Waylen family and partly run as a school until at least 1902.  He was associated with nos.1 & 2 also, and may have owned them at one time. He certainly owned the land behind no.2.

Left: Image of Anthony Cousins observing during demolition Right: Drawing of south-east face of cross-frame between no.1 & no.2 Northgate Street

As the demolition of no.2, a late-18th century grade II listed town house, started nearly a year and a half after the fire, WBR was asked by local surveyors Dolmans to survey the remains in advance of the clearing of the site, and subsequently nos.1 & 3 also, giving a rare opportunity to study a continuous block of buildings in the centre of Devizes. As internal plaster had fallen away as a result of the fire, parts of timber cross-frames that separated each building from the other were revealed. What was interesting was that these cross-frames related to older timber-framed buildings that were set back further from the present road front by about a metre and a half – all an exciting find not previously known about. What is more, these timber buildings appear to have burnt down in the past, judging by the burnt timbers that were covered by unburnt plaster in some areas of the cross-frame between nos.1 and 2. All three buildings are on the south side of Northgate Street at its narrowest point at the north-west entrance to the wide Market Place in the town’s centre. A map of the town in 1759 shows a similar layout to the roads, so it appears always to have been narrowed at this point. However, it is possible to see a jump forward in the line of buildings at the west end of Market Place and the start of Northgate Street today, which made it narrower.

1886 25″ Ordnance Survey map extract from Know Your Place: https://maps.bristol.gov.uk/kyp/?edition=wilts

How old were these timber-framed buildings? From the fragmentary remains, the frame between no.1 and no.2 contains a big, curved wall-brace, from this feature it can be tentatively dated to at least the 16^th century, whilst the frame between no.2 and no.3 looks to be 17^th century.  A glimpse of this earlier house can be seen in the apex of the northern gable of no.3.  As the cross-frame between nos.1 & 2 was revealed by demolition, WBR was able to record it by photography and drawing before this bit of history is covered up again.

Dorothy Treasure

Principal Buildings Historian, Wiltshire Buildings Record