| Description | Six Chimneys, Kirkgate. Demolished timber framed town house.
WYAAS archives holds an illustration of Six Chimneys of unknown source and date which depicts the building as it was in the 18th or early 19th century (Anon. Undated). WYAAS archives also holds copies various images which are held in the Wakefield Museum Collection. These were obtained from the Wakefield Museum on line resource (http://www.wakefieldmuseumcollections.org.uk/photographs/. Web site accessed 21/11/2013). The images comprise:
Wakefield Museum Collection accession number: 1961.23/2/11. Photograph. 'Kirkgate looking from the Six Chimneys towards Warrengate'. 1890 1910
Wakefield Museum Collection accession number: 1984.128/1. Photograph. 'A postcard of Kirkgate with the Six Chimneys on the right'. 1900 1920
Wakefield Museum Collection accession number: 1993.1691. Photograph. 'The Six Chimneys in Kirkgate during the 1930s. Part of the building is being used as a cycle shop'. 1920 1939
Combined, the images depict a three storey building which is partially timber framed and situated on the east side of Kirkgate. The ground floor walls are constructed of stone; above they are of timber. The building is triple gabled with the gables fronting Kirkgate. The top two storeys and roof gables are jettied.
The stone wall of the ground floor frontage has the appearance of being sub divided into two accommodations. The left hand side has, from north to south, a doorway and a four light mullioned window. The surrounds are square with chamfered edges. The mullions are also chamfered. The small section of the northern return wall which is visible before it joins the adjacent building has a tall single light window. The southern half of the frontage has a three light mullioned window and a doorway also with chamfered edges. This doorway possibly has a Tudor arched head. The southern return wall has two single light windows.
The floors above are divided into three equally sized bays each separated by posts with a gable above. Although the wall frame to each bay floor has the same design, the height is graduated (narrower on the second floor). Each has narrow studding in the top half of the frame with wider spaced studs in the lower half with raking braces between the studs which form a herring bone pattern. There are denticulate studs below each jetty bressumer. The windows are three light and are centrally positioned in the top half of the frame. The king post gable truss is filled by studs with raking braces between which form a herring bone pattern. The jetty posts rest on curved braces. The end rafters project over the front of the building and the two end gables are surmounted by a tall turned finial on a king block. The six tall stone chimneys are positioned in a row in the centre of the middle roof ridge. The southern side wall above ground level is rendered. The northern side wall is partially rendered with studding and windows towards the front.
Incidentally, the building attached to the north is also timber framed. The building has a sign depicting an anchor suggesting it was a public house. It had a cross wing plan. The main house body was one and a half stores. The cross wing was two storey, the gable wall was jettied above the ground floor with two heavy braces (PRN 12985).
Through a comparison between the available historic images and historic mapping, the building was confidently placed at the location presented in this digital HER record. In addition to the arrangement of physical features, the anchor on the illustration above matches the Crown and Anchor Inn named c.1850 (OS 1/1056 town plan. C.1850).
Six Chimneys collapsed in May 1941 and now lies beneath the roundabout to the south of Kirkgate (Johnstone, C. 1993. 'Wakefield in Old Buildings': Mastermap 2011). |