Claire Richardson History: July 2024

In the first part of this blogpost we looked at the very earliest features in The Deepings that can be seen. This part looks at the more recent features, in particular the domestic buildings.

The majority of the features included are listed buildings and structures because these have been identified as being of historic interest and their history, or features, have been identified. For those who don't want to wade through the descriptions, there is a list below of the oldest buildings. It includes largely domestic buildings (and conversions) but also bridges, agricultural, industrial and commercial buildings. The list only goes up to 1800 for brevity, and because they are usually much easier to spot. Dating buildings is incredibly hard, which is why listed buildings make the core of this list, but let us not forget that buildings are being altered and improved all the time for fashion or changing purposes. As you will see, older buildings are often incorporated into newer structures and those pesky datestones often relate to improvements and extensions, so do not be fooled by them!

Let’s start with the oldest domestic building in The Deepings. If you know the area you might be thinking it’s the beautiful stone building on Church Street known in the listing as The Old Curiosity Shop (No. 29). With its low profile, its mullion stone windows and two-storey stone box window, it is a bit of a gem. It is dated to the late 16^th century (Tudor) but it’s not the oldest home in The Deepings. That award goes to The Old Rectory and East Wing, which is further north on Church Street but set back behind St Guthlac’s Church. Originally one house, it was built in the early 14^th century as a ‘refectory or infirmary to the Prior of Market Deeping, a cell of Thorney Abbey’ according to the listing. Thankfully it survived the reformation and was converted into a rather fine rectory, and later divided into two houses. It is Grade I listed.

The Old Curiosity Shop doesn’t even make it into second position as the oldest domestic building; that position is taken by Grade II* listed West Deeping Manor House which is dated to the 15^th century (medieval or early Tudor). I have to add an addendum here: the official historic listing says it’s 15^th century, but it has a datestone of 1634, which is tripping people up. Even the recent sales listing for the property states it was built in 1634, meaning they haven’t checked the listing either (and potentially missed out on more money from selling an older house). If you want to look at the house (and its incredible panelled entrance hall), follow this link here for the sale listing and plan, or this listing here (although they’ve also missed the earlier date).

The manor is definitely older than 1634, so let’s look at how we can tell. Firstly, the plan of the front of the building makes an E-shape, which was a popular style in the late 16th century to honour Queen Elizabeth I (see the front of Burghley, for example). That’s obviously not the 15^th century part and for that we need to look at another section of the house and identify the original hall. Medieval manors were originally open halls with a large central fireplace, with extra floors and rooms being added or adapted over time (Northborough is a nice example of this here). At West Deeping the original hall was south-facing and has, over time, been divided up into the drawing room, study and other rooms, which you can see on the floorplans in the sales listing. If you look at images of the south face of the building (and the floorplan again) there is evidence of a large chimney and fireplace, which is likely to be the evolution of the original open fire in the hall. When Humphrey Orme (later owner of the building under Peterborough Museum) rented the house in 1536 he would have been living in the hall, with later owners adapting and moulding it into the house we see now.

The Old Curiosity Shop or 29 Church Street

Finally, we get to The Old Curiosity Shop, sliding in to the Bronze medal position. It is the only building in the area surviving from the 16^th century, although it’s very possible that some of the early 17^th century buildings in the area are hiding earlier timbers, including buildings such as The Bull, dated to the early 17^th century and taking a prominent position in the marketplace in Market Deeping.

The reason is that there are so few surviving buildings is because The Deepings were sitting on the edge of a very soggy fen at this point. Some early drains were in place, and it was habitable on the ridges and islands and west of Car Dyke, but it was still very wet (Deeping Fen was a lake until 1845). There are many houses to the south of the Deepings in the Soke of Peterborough that are older (see Peterborough’s Oldest Buildings Part II) but anything in the Deepings made of wood would have rotted – only stone buildings have survived, and that expensive stone had to been brought in from the higher ground.

The arrival of mass draining during the 17^th century completely changed the landscape and economy in the area as the fields dried out over many decades. In addition, I would argue that the building of the Stamford to Deeping canal in the 1660s was equally important when it came to buildings in the area. The canal brought a huge boost to the economy, which resulted in many stone buildings being built throughout the three districts. The building of the stone Deeping Gate bridge (Grade II*) in 1651 after the Civil Wars undoubtedly helped with this building, allowing the transportation of heavy stone easily across the Welland without the need of a ferry, waiting for low tides, or stressing old wooden bridges.

The Bull in Market Deeping with its carriage entrance in the centre

There are a total of 25 listed buildings dating to the 17^th century in the Deepings. This might not sound like much, but there are only three domestic buildings that survive before then, so you really can see the difference that draining and adding a canal and bridge did to the area. There are only two early 17^th century buildings: The Bull and St Benedict’s Priory, previously known as Priory Farmhouse. St Benedict's was built using some features from the earlier priory (so we could claim the building is older and deserves a higher position in the listing, but I’m not certain what those features are).

What is worth noting is that West Deeping Manor and St Benedict’s Priory have the same E-shape plan to them and look cut from the same cloth (Langford Manor in Somerset is a very interesting comparison here.) St Benedict’s is a taller building and appears to be a later, more confident imagining of the E-shape – a one-up to the glamorous West Deeping! But the E-shape would suggest it is very early 17^th century because the shape fell out of fashion after the death of Elizabeth.

The other buildings of that century are dated to a generic 17^th century or are late 17^th century. That is with the exception of The Grey House on Stamford Road dated specifically to 1681 and 40, 42 and 44 Church Street, Deeping St James (fitting together in a horseshoe-shape) dated to 1688. The datestones appear to match the architectural styles, but there is a chance they are older still.

The ghosts of windows past and a large wooden lintel

It would also be terribly remiss of me if I fail to mention an unusual feature in Market Deeping with a date of 1648 and inscription. It is a lovely wooden lintel that is said to have belonged to a previous house that sat between Toninio’s (formerly TSB) and what is currently The Furniture Factory and where the entrance to The Blades is. The full inscription on the lintel reads ‘Anno Dom * 1648 * IULY* 4 * RS *’ as you can see on the image below.

It appears to commemorate something (IULY being July) but it is not clear what. The problem with the theory that it belonged to a lost house is that early photographs of the area show a small thatched building clinging to Toninio’s here (Sandersons is the building with the lintel) and there appears to be a passage or gap between the buildings. The lintel sits above the infilled remains of what is claimed to be a former window, and is one of several infilled features, the windows and two doors being framed by stone frames.

You might be fooled into thinking that the features are all from the same time period and potentially from this illusive lost building, but there is a very important feature in the wall – a boot scraper.

The boot scraper

This means that this is the outer wall of the door and that dates it to the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries when boot scrapers were installed in buildings. The slim shape of the windows, which would have been sash windows, also agree with this date. We should consider, therefore, if the lintel had been moved and came from another location. Looking at the lintel there is evidence of small wooden blocks around the timber but also around the ghost of the lost opening which was once open to the ground. It’s very likely these blocks were once much longer batons, beams or bars. The grain of the wood tells us they ran perpendicular to the opening and might have been wall studs. Was this, yet again, the date of another extension, or the creation of a link between two separate buildings? That is very possible. The current building that these features sit in appears to be nineteenth century, but I strongly suspect that this is a façade over the bones of an older building.

Hidden brickwork

One of the reasons for that is that some of the stone at the front of the building is very badly eroded, and sitting behind it are some rather nice red bricks, a feature that is very common in some of the 17^th century buildings below, including 3 Stamford Road, a few metres away from it. Toninio’s is listed, but The Furniture Factory is not.

The list of historic buildings and features in The Deepings

Building	Location	Date/Century
The Old Rectory and East Wing	Market Deeping	Early 14^th
West Deeping Manor House	West Deeping	15^th
Old Curiosity Shop (No. 29 Church Street)	Market Deeping	16^th
St Benedict’s Priory	Deeping St James	Early 17^th
The Bull (and shop)	Market Place, Market Deeping	Early 17^th
Market Deeping Mill	Stamford Road, Market Deeping	17^th
70 Church Street	Market Deeping	17^th
1 Corner Farm	Market Deeping	17^th
Stable and Granary at Corner Farm	Market Deeping	17^th
18 Halfleet	Market Deeping	17^th
Portland House	Market Deeping	17^th
30 Bridge Street	Deeping St James	17^th
Cromwell House	West Deeping	17^th
Molecey’s Mill and Granary	West Deeping	17^th
Sundial Cottage	West Deeping	17^th
Market Deeping Mill	Market Deeping	17^th
16 Church Street	Market Deeping	17^th
36 Church Street	Market Deeping	17^th
38 Church Street	Market Deeping	17^{th (1697)}
129 Eastgate	Deeping St James	Late 17^th
Boathouse to the rear of No.2 Eastgate	Deeping St James	Late 17^th
1 and 3 Stamford Road	Market Deeping	Late 17^th
25 Market Place	Market Deeping	Late 17^th
102-104 Church Street	Market Deeping	Late 17^th
4 and 6 Bridge Street	Deeping St James	Late 17^th
100 Bridge Street	Deeping St James	Late 17^th
36 King Street	West Deeping	Late 17^th
18 Stamford Road (Grey House)	Market Deeping	1681
40, 42 and 44 Church St	Deeping St James	1688
42 Halfleet	Market Deeping	c.1700
29A Church Street (former barn)	Market Deeping	c.1700
5 Stamford Road	Market Deeping	Early 18^th
43 High Street (and entrance gate)	Market Deeping	Early 18^th
37A King’s Cottage ( was Barn north of 39 King Street)	West Deeping	Early 18^th
87 Eastgate	Deeping St James	Early 18^th
33 Halfleet	Market Deeping	Mid 18^th
9 Stamford Road	Market Deeping	Mid 18^th
17-19 High Street	Market Deeping	Mid 18^th
45 High Street, The Laurels	Market Deeping	18^th
Pigeoncote in the grounds of Holly Lodge	West Deeping	1755
48 Church Street	Market Deeping	1760
43A King Street	West Deeping	1768
64 Church Street	Market Deeping	1770
43 King Street, The Chalet	West Deeping	1785
The Library	Deeping St James	Late 18^th
91 Eastgate	Deeping St James	Late 18^th
Towngate Maltings, Towngate West	Market Deeping	Late 18^th
68 Church Street	Market Deeping	Late 18^th
80 Church Street, Willoughby House	Market Deeping	Late 18^th
82 Church Street, The Cedars	Market Deeping	Late 18^th
116-122 Church Street	Market Deeping	Late 18^th
27 Market Place	Market Deeping	Late 18^th
2 Barns and Outbuildings at Towngate Farm	Market Deeping	Late 18^th
27 Church Street, White Horse	Market Deeping	Late 18^th
35 Church Street, Holland House	Market Deeping	Late 18^th
19 Church Street, The Vine Pub	Market Deeping	Late 18^th
25 Church Street	Market Deeping	Late 18^th
31-33 Church Street	Market Deeping	Late 18^th
18 High Street	Market Deeping	Late 18^th
Mill Race Bridge, Stamford Road	Market Deeping	Late 18^th
30 King Street	West Deeping	Late 18^th
45 King Street	West Deeping	Late 18^th
Barn at Rectory Farm, Stamford Road	West Deeping	Late 18^th
Granary next to No. 23 King Street	West Deeping	Late 18^th
Ivy House and Barn	West Deeping	Late 18^th
Pigeoncote at Market Deeping Mill, Stamford Road	Market Deeping	Late 18^th

There are loads of buildings that have not been listed that I would expect to be, and I have included three in italics. 36 and 38 Church Street (opposite the church yard) both shows signs of being raised from 1 to 2 storeys, with No. 38 having a datestone of 1697 (which is likely to represent the raising of the roof, not the building of the house). The quoin stones on the wall of 36 that butts up against 38 suggest that it was built before it.

36 and 38 Church Street

On the same road, no. 16 may also be from the same time period, with its stone window surrounds on the ground floor and low eaves. All three properties have casement windows, which helps to date them before the arrival of sash windows.

Further along the road, named Halfleet there, sits No. 48, which appears to have very interesting bones under its rendered walls, with its small casement windows and large central chimney stack. It isn't possible to tell its age from glancing at a distance, but I would not be surprised if it was from a similar period to the other houses mentioned.

Over in Deeping St James is the diminutive 45 Horsegate, recently sold with the promise that it was great for development. It again, shows the features of an old building with wooden beams internally and what is possibly a cruck beam on the outside of the building (which would make it very unusual indeed, and therefore possibly a later addition).

The gable end of 47 Church Street on a hot day

There are also unusual features, such as the lovely tripartite stone mullion window halfway up the gable end of 47 Church Street and two circular windows below it. Stone mullion windows looked the same on the inside as the outside, but I suspect this was an external wall that has been incorporated into the building for cost-saving measures (and because it looks really nice). And did I mention the beautiful pargetting above the first-floor windows of 42 Halfleet? The building is listed, but the features are so unusual and so delightful that they need to have their own little mention.

There are some very old, very beautiful buildings dotted around The Deepings, many more than I’ve had time or space to mention here. If you have another building you think should be included, or a feature that has been overlooked, do let me know and I’ll add it to the list. Once I’ve pootled past, of course.

For more information about The Deepings the blogs of both Deepings Heritage and West Deeping Heritage Group are packed with information and photographs of some of the buildings I've mentioned. Listed buildings can be found on the Historic England site, British Listed Buildings or for lovely maps, Lincolnshire Heritage Explorer. All the links are below.

https://deepingsheritage.wordpress.com/

https://wdheritage.wordpress.com/

https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/

https://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/

https://heritage-explorer.lincolnshire.gov.uk/map

All of the images belong to the author.