Early Fabric in Historic Towns: Timber-Framed Buildings in Southwell, Nottinghamshire, c. 1350–1650

Abstract

This article presents the results of an Historic England (then English Heritage) funded volunteer building recording project in Southwell, Nottinghamshire, conducted by the Southwell Community Archaeology Group under the direction of Dr Chris King (University of Nottingham) and Matthew Hurford (Trent & Peak Archaeology, York Archaeological Trust). Southwell, as a minster town with Roman and Anglo-Saxon antecedents, is one of the most important historic urban centres in the East Midlands and has an impressive and distinctive architectural legacy. The Group examined over 30 mainly brick structures which date to the eighteenth century or earlier, but this article concentrates on the six timber-framed buildings which survive in both the centre of the town and the outlying suburb of Westhorpe. These range in date from the first half of the seventeenth century back to the medieval period, with dendrochronological analysis carried out as part of the project by Nottingham Tree-Ring Dating Laboratory identifying the earliest known vernacular building in Southwell dating back to the mid fourteenth century.