British Listed Buildings

Listing Text

622/0/10114 CHURCH STREET
09-AUG-10 BERWICK
86
MANSERGH

II
Town House constructed in the mid C18 and refurbished in the mid-later C19; C20 extension to rear

Materials: sandstone with ashlar plinth, quoins and dressings; stuccoed and rendered, brick chimneys and welsh slate roofs

Plan: L- shape with kitchen range to rear. Formerly of two cells separated by an alley, the latter blocked at each end and incorporated within the body of the house.

Exterior: three storeys and three bays under a hipped roof with rear and right eaves chimneystacks and decorative finials. A central entrance with a classical door case is flanked by paired windows to the right and a single window to the left; the first and second floors each have three similar windows. Ground-and first-floor windows have similar pediment-shaped lintels with incised quatrefoils and all windows house two-pane replacement sash windows. The left return to The Parade comprises a single bay with an oriel window to the first floor. There is a two-storey C19 service extension to the rear.

Interior: entrance vestibule with carved oak double doors leading to hall giving access to dining room on the left; dining room has decorative cornice and ceiling rose, cupboard in recess and carved wooden fireplace. Other ground-floor reception room is plain. A C19 wooden staircase gives access to the first floor via a plaster stair arch; the first-floor drawing room is decorated in a similar style to that of the ground floor. Bedrooms on this level and the third floor are plain, some with original cupboards and fireplaces. The roof structure is formed of sawn timbers.

History: This town house, formerly known as 'Parade View' is situated on the south-west corner of The Parade, an historic open space which formed a focus for military and public gatherings in Berwick. Armstrong's map of Berwick (1769) while diagrammatic in nature depicts buildings on the site of the house and its adjacent plots; the present buildings on both sides abut the quoins of this house indicating that the house was earlier in date. The 1852 Board of Health Plan depicts the house with a rectangular footprint and it is clear that the ground floor of the original building consisted of two separate cells (the present ground floor reception rooms) placed either side of an alley giving access to the rear yard. By the time of the 1898 Ordnance Survey map the ally was blocked and incorporated within the body of the house; its former location marked by the ground floor window immediately to the right of the main entrance. The building had also been extended to the rear at the south end. The house itself is documented in an indenture dated 1771 recording the sale of the property, and it is considered to be mid C18 in date. External and internal evidence suggests that the house underwent both external and internal refurbishment and some remodelling in the mid to later C19.

Sources:
McCombie, G 'Survey of Berwick upon Tweed' Unpublished Buildings Report for Northumberland County Council, (2003)
Pevsner N, The Buildings of England: Northumberland 2nd Ed Grundy et al (1992), 181

Reasons for Designation: Mansergh, Church Street, a mid C18 town house with mid - later C19 alterations, is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

* Design: it was designed as an imposing three-storey mid-later C18 dwelling with the characteristic detailing of houses of this date in Berwick upon Tweed.

* Planning: to occupy a corner site opposite the Parade, an open space for both military and public gatherings

* Group Value: it forms a group with numerous listed buildings ranged around the open space of the Parade including an example of similar style and proportions on an adjacent corner plot

* Evolution: the evolved nature of its exterior and internal plan illustrates a building history common to such buildings in Berwick upon Tweed, but very often lost by conversion

Source: English Heritage

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