British Listed Buildings

Listing Text

STRATFORD-UPON-AVON

SP2054NW SHEEP STREET
604-1/10/208 (South side)
09/02/72 No.4
(Formerly Listed as:
SHEEP STREET
No.4
Shakespeare Press)

GV II

Town house, now shop. Tie beam with black letter: BUILT c1490,
probably C16; barge-boards with: RESTORED 1910: BY WILLIAM
JAGGARD. Timber-frame front with plaster infill and some
brick; much remaining internal timber-frame; fishscale tile
roof with brick rear stack.
2 storeys; single-window range. Small brick section with top
modillioned brick cornice and larger timber-framed projection
to left. Entrance to right has small-pane half-glazed door.
Ground floor has large 5-light transomed window with upper
leaded glazing and grille below; 1st floor has late C20
three-light window with 2 transoms replacing sash, and small
leaded window to gablet.
INTERIOR: chamfered beams; 1st floor has roof trusses with
close-studded infill; rear has 2 altered roof trusses to rear
wing, now enclosed in larger wing, on wall posts.
HISTORICAL NOTE: a plaque, now removed, stated that a press
was founded here 1591, and that the 1st edition of
Shakespeare's works was published here 1623. William Jaggard,
the bibliographer of Shakespeare and said to be the descendant
of the publisher of the 1st folio, lived here late C19 onwards
and set up the Shakespeare Press.
(VCH (offprint): Styles P: The Borough of Stratford-upon-Avon
and the Parish of Alveston: London: 1946-: 13; Forrest H E:
The Old Houses of Stratford-upon-Avon: London: 1925-: 84).


Listing NGR: SP2016654834

Source: English Heritage

Listed building text is © Crown Copyright. Reproduced under licence: PSI Click-use licence number C2008002006.