Earlier stylistic date now superceeded by tree-ring dating to C15. (4)

Impressive … C16, with a coved and oversailing upper storey. It was associated with the Governors of Newark during the sieges of 1643-6. (1)

House. 1474, with late C18 addition and early and late C19 and C20 alterations. Restored and converted 1987 by Guy St John Taylor Associates. (2)

One of the grandest buildings on Stodman Street, dating from the 15th century. It was the residence of two town governors, Richard Willis and Richard Byron, during the Civil War. The timber-framed building underwent dendrochronological dating in 1985 and 1998 which gave felling dates of 1456-1476 for the front range and 1484-1504 for the rear range suggesting a two-stage construction. It has three storeys and an L-shaped plan. The front range is six-bays wide and is close studded with coved jettied floors. During examination of the building in the 1980s and 1990s evidence was found of continuous mullioned windows at the first-floor level, similar to the Old White Hart, 34 Market Place. The windows of the first and second floors was replaced in the 19th century with multi-pane sashes and 20th-century wooden shop fronts have been inserted into the ground floor. The rear wing, accessed via a carriageway that forms part of 47 Market Place, has a stone-built ground floor with close-studded timber framing above. Internally, the building retains wall paintings on the first floor. The Governor’s House was listed grade I in 1950 and was restored and converted in 1987 by Guy St John Taylor Associates. (3)

The results from the first sampling at this building had suggested different dates for the front and rear ranges; AD 1458-77 for timbers from the Front Range and mid-sixteenth century for those from the Rear. The result of the re-analysis felling dates are known or can be estimated for three timbers of the Front Range and three from the Rear Range. From the Front Range, one has an estimated felling date within the range AD 1456-76 and two within the range of AD 1461-81. One beam from the Rear Range is from a tree felled in AD 1465, whilst the other two, thought most likely to be from the same tree, have an estimated felling date within the range AD1484-1504. From the tree-ring evidence, ti can be seen that both the Front and Rear Ranges are constructed from trees felled some time during the last four decades of the fifteenth century. It is likely that the Front Range was built in the third quarter of the fifteenth century just before the Rear Range. The samples from the first floor of the Front Range came from the posts and tiebeams of the principal trusses and any dates given by these samples should form a solid foundation for the date of its construction. During th original analysis of samples from the rear of the building dating proved difficult due to the shortness of the ring-width sequences of the samples, the results of analysis on the tendon ends being especially problematic, with only a few of them being dated. This was probably not only due to the shortness of the sequences but also the widespread scatter of samples within the building. The same problem was encountered again with few timbers being suitable for sampling and three of those eventually chosen remain undated. (5)

Listed buildings slides, 53 slides (Photograph). SNT2648.

<1> Pevsner N, 1979, The Buildings of England: Nottinghamshire 2nd ed., p 196 (Monograph). SNT4.

<2> DOE, Listed Building Description (Published document). SNT228.

<3> Historic England, 2024, Newark on Trent: Historic Area Assessment by Historic England (Unpublished document). SNT6029.

<4> J Buckley (NCC), Observations by Janine Buckley MA (NCC) (Personal comment). SNT5239.

<5> A.J. Arnold, R.E Howard, R.R Laxton, C.D Litton, 2002, The Urban Development of Newark-on-Trent: A Dendrochronological Approach (Monograph). SNT1624.