Here in the United Kingdom, we are blessed with a rich variety of building styles and designs. The external aesthetics of a building are a great indicator as to what era the property was originally constructed in. There are also many other factors to help you zero in on the history of a property. The period that the property was built will have a huge bearing as to the construction method and materials used.
Although disputed these periods normally correlate with the name of the ruler or monarch at the time of construction.
Today I am here at The Marble House in Warwick. Believed to have been built around 1650 this property is somewhere in the Stuart and Jacobean era between 1604 and 1713.
Between 1603 -1625 James I ruled the lands. James was the son of Mary Queen of Scots and Lord Darnley. He was the first king to rule over Scotland and England. James was more of a scholar than a man of action. In 1605 the Gunpowder Plot was hatched: Guy Fawkes and his Catholic friends tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament, but they were captured before they could do so.
James’s reign saw the publication of the Authorised Version of the Bible, though this caused problems with the Puritans and their attitude towards the established church. In 1620 the Pilgrim Fathers sailed for America in their ship The Mayflower.
Between 1625 – 1649 we had Charles I and the subsequent English Civil War.
The son of James I and Anne of Denmark, Charles believed that he ruled by Divine Right. He encountered difficulties with Parliament from the beginning, and this led to the outbreak of the English Civil War in 1642. The war lasted four years and following the defeat of Charles’s Royalist forces by the New Model Army, led by Oliver Cromwell, Charles was captured and imprisoned.
The House of Commons tried Charles for treason against England and when found guilty he was condemned to death. His death warrant states that he was beheaded on Tuesday 30th January 1649. Following this the British monarchy was abolished, and a republic called the Commonwealth of England was declared.
The Civil War in the 1640s and 50s and the Great Fire of London in 1666 both had a marked effect on the way British homes evolved. After the blaze destroyed 13,200 wooden-built houses across the capital in four days, Parliament decreed that homes must be built of brick. The War sent many gentlemen to the Continent to flee the fighting or later to follow Charles II into exile, where they were hugely influenced by French, Dutch and Italian architecture, leading to a flurry of buildings which reflected the latest European trends, and which eventually filtered down from the nobility to the masses.
Synonymous with the era were flat-fronted, bare brick-built houses with sash windows, often built in a classical Palladian style with gothic touches. At the beginning of this period, life for the Middling Sort – forerunners of the middle classes – centred on The Hall, the first-floor room where the entire household, gathered to dine, socialise and entertain guests. But from the 1660s, the parlour and the dining room became the main living areas for the family, signalling a change in the way households lived with a greater separation between the family, their servants, apprentices and other employees.
The economy was growing, and the Middling Sort were prospering, and able to buy expensive items from overseas like silver, porcelain, colourful textiles, mirrors and clocks to adorn their homes. It was during this period that servants would be accommodated in smaller rooms at the top of the house
On the 5th September at 2pm in 1694 a fire ravaged through the town of Warwick. If The Marble House was not built of locally sourced Ashlar Sandstone it may well have suffered the same fate as many of the other properties in Warwick.
The fire started from a spark from a torch that was being carried up the High Street, it quickly progressed to Castle Street and Market Street. It destroyed many of the Tudor wooden frame buildings throughout the town. In just six hours the fire destroyed over 150 homes.
As a result of the fire parliament passed The Fire Act of 1694 which established new rules and regulations on architecture.
The Act stated that public streets and roads should all be made a certain regulated width. The town gave compensation to those whose property was destroyed by the street widening process. The fire created an urban design revolution. Its aftermath gave the town of Warwick symmetry, uniformity and a new flair.
One family are credited to the beautiful buildings that emerged post fire here in Warwick. The brothers Francis and William Smith. In 1695 William was appointed surveyor for the fire council. He went on to have two separate reigns as the towns mayor.
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