Whitchurch Town Trail: Watergate Street

Watergate Street (often referred to simply as Watergate) runs southeast into the street called Dodington (once Dodington High Street) from the Bull Ring junction with Castle Hill and Mill Street (earlier known as Lord Hill Square).

According to TC Duggan’s History of Whitchurch, Shropshire (1935):

Watergate means Water Road or lane. This street takes its name from the fact
that an open stream of water ran across the road from the Mill Pond . . . to the Mill which originally stood adjoining the Lord Hill Hotel on what is now the street between the Lord Hill Hotel and Messrs. WH Smith and Co’s shop.

This brook evidently was the limit of Whitchurch, in this direction, because we find it stated in 1851 that “Dodington is half a mile South from Whitchurch and may be considered a suburb of the town.”

The Lord Hill Hotel no longer exists, but its stables were the location of the sixteenth fire in ten months in the Whitchurch area on 6th October 1830. Four men were tried for arson at the Shropshire Spring Assizes in 1832. One was acquitted, one sentenced to transportation for life, and two sentenced to death.

What went on here?
The Poor Rate Valuation (1827) lists 45 properties in the street, of which James Mullock Hinton is shown as proprietor of ten, and Mrs Lunt of 5. The property descriptions provide evidence of considerable commercial activity.

Shops and Trades

Star Inn
Curriers Shop
Lord Hill Inn
Slaughterhouse (2)
Wheelwrights Shop
Smithy
Stable
Maltkiln
Nailors Shop
Warehouse
White Lion Inn
Drying Yard and Coach-house
Swan Inn
Candle Warehouse (2)
Bull’s Head Publick house
Coal Receptacle
Savings Bank

The Savings Bank might be the Commercial Bank of England, in the premises later occupied by GH Morgan and Sons, mentioned by Duggan. It could also be the Penny Bank at the Jones and Bailey premises, on which Duggan comments ‘It is not known when this Bank opened or when it was closed.’

Pubs Past and Present

The Bull’s Head is the only public house listed in 1827 that still exists. In the early 19th century, there was a regular weekly service for transport of goods from the Swan Hotel to Birmingham every Friday. Opposite the Bull’s Head is the Old Eagles pub. While the original building is extremely old, it is not recorded as an inn until 1868.

Listed Buildings

Southwest side: 13 (Old Eagles Public House), 15 and 15A, 17 and 19

Northeast side: 26 and 28, 30 and 32, 44, Bull’s Head Public House

Number 13 (Old Eagles Public House)
‘The earliest framed building known in Whitchurch’

Despite its Victorian exterior, this Grade II* house is widely considered to be the oldest building in Whitchurch. It was probably built during the 14th century but only became a pub in 1868. The English Heritage listing description comments:

Although altered externally, this is a rare example of a medieval town
house, particularly notable for its unusual [base-cruck] framed construction.

Joan Barton’s A Millennium History of Whitchurch (Herald Printers Ltd, 2000) provides some of its very earliest background. In 1404, in the most recent of a frequent series of Welsh cross-border raids on the town,

. . . the centre of the town was burned and pillaged . . . it took seven years
for the damage to be repaired . . . The only building which may have survived
from this time is the Old Eagles pub in Watergate, which has interior timbers
which date from c.1400.

In her Vernacular Buildings of Whitchurch (Logaston Press, 1999), Madge Moran categorises the framing as ‘Base-cruck’ because the cruck blades do not meet at the apex. As to its original purpose, she concludes:

The quality of the carpentry and the moulding on the crucks indicate that The Old Eagles had its origins in a high-class building requiring a lofty
open upper hall, and a ground floor room fulfilling a secondary purpose. The most likely explanation is that it was a medieval guild hall of some kind. Its form and size suggest a corporate rather than a domestic use. It was set parallel to Watergate and probably extended further on each side than the
present boundaries.

There were 8 bedrooms in 1896, with stables – shown on the 1880 OS map - for 40 horses (day) and 16 (night). Coach services in this part of the town had long been based on the Lord Hill with, for example, the ‘Victory’ leaving for Shrewsbury every morning at 10 am (1822-29)

Many cruck-built houses and cottages in the town were demolished during ‘slum clearance’ projects in the 1930s and 1950s. You can still see cruck constructions at:

6, Dodington (full-cruck)
25, Dodington (upper-cruck)
Horse and Jockey pub, Church Street (upper-cruck)

Numbers 15 and 15A
This house and shop were originally a single red-brick house, built around 1700. The rear is timber-framed. Unpublished research directed by Madge Moran (since the publication of her Vernacular Buildings of Whitchurch and Area, Logaston Press, 1999), and undertaken by the former Whitchurch Buildings Recording Group, has determined that:

It is very likely that the land these houses stand on once formed part of the Old Eagles plot next door at No 13.

Behind No. 15 stands a rare detached kitchen building, containing an original and complete cast-iron kitchen range. Nameplates on the range show that it was made in Coalbrookdale, and supplied by WH Smith & Co of Whitchurch, a major iron-founder in the town. Mrs Moran comments:

The survival of a detached kitchen, particularly at vernacular level, is remarkable enough. What makes this example so exceptional is its late
date, its location in a busy town, the fact that it is fully equipped, and that the provenance of the fittings is known.

The ‘master bedroom’ fireplace surround contained 19 blue and white tiles with a variety of design motifs, thought to be of English Delftware, made in Liverpool. The Buildings Recording Group has produced accurate and detailed drawings of these designs.

This can be classed as a Transitional building, combining timber-framing front and back with gables in brick. Other examples nearby include Ellesmere House and Bark Hill House.

Numbers 17 and 19
Originally two houses built in late 16th or early 17th century. The rendering on the street front is painted in imitation timber-framing. There’s more about these two houses and their neighbours in the section on Other Noteworthy Buildings.

Numbers 26 and 28
Timber-framed houses probably built in the early 17th century, partly rebuilt in red brick during the 19th century. The former Whitchurch Buildings Recording Group examined No 28 during the year 2000 while it was undergoing thorough and complete refurbishment.

Dendro-dating procedures reported a felling date of 1597 for the timbers in the box-framed structure.

The northern bay is decorated with wall paintings of floral motifs on the northern side wall. Pigment analysis indicates that the designs were renewed periodically.

In Mrs Moran’s view, the house is ‘likely to have housed a family whose head was perhaps a minor official in the town or involved with trade.’ Later, the building became a shop or shops at ground level with living accommodation above and to the rear.

Numbers 30 and 32
Timber-framed houses, now rendered, probably built in 17th century.

Number 44
Red-brick house, built around 1700, now house and shop. Contains ‘well-detailed pre-1720 dog-leg oak staircase, rising two floors . . . with stubby column-on-vase balusters.’ (English Heritage listing description)

Bull’s Head Public House
Originally built as a timber-framed house, probably late 16th century (according to English Heritage description). Also known during the 17th century as The Red Bull and the Bull Inne, it was extended to the rear around 1700, and further redesigned and remodelled during the 19th century.

Apparently owned in 1827 by the Old Whitchurch Friendly Society, the occupier listed as Will Shone. In 1896, when Joseph Bradshaw was landlord, four bedrooms were available, with stabling for 10 horses overnight and 5 by day, making it clearly too small to support a coach service.