Siop Clwyd is one of the less altered sub-medieval town-houses in Denbigh. It is situated in a triangular encroachment on the original Market Square having a long narrow burgage plot with frontage to both High Street and Back Row. The fronts retain timber-framed jetties at each gable-end.
Timbers from the building have been dated by dendrochronology to1533, indicating it was built very close to this date. This would make it the earliest dated domestic building in the town.

It consists of 6-bays divided into 3 units, having a former open hall at its centre with arch-braced central truss and wind-braced purlins. Each end is storied with a central moulded ceiling-beam to ground-floor, with the High Street part retaining a first-floor arch-braced truss. The lower Back-Row part retains timber-framed side walling at first-floor above stone walling and this may be the original form of framing throughout, above stone walls dividing the burgage plot. The first-floor jetty beam is here supported on a stone corbel at one side and appears to have an adjacent corbel for a now demolished building alongside.


Description
External
Externally each gable-end jetty framing is close-studded and both were jettied at first-floor and attic. However, only the High Street gable retains its framing to truss with tie-beam, studs, collar and raking-struts. At the Back Row the first-floor framing is slightly different, retaining mortices in the principal-posts for brackets to support the cut back wall-plates and truss frame. These corner posts are jowled and up-braced to the wall-plate, while the High Streeet facade posts are plain, but they may be replacements, as bracket mortises are not visible.The Back-row gable-end appears from the surviving origianal framing to have had a planted window similar to the one in the east elevation, and the HighStreet facade must have matched it. The east elevastion retains 6 wattle & daub verticlay-rectangular timber-framed panels between a girding-beam and a wall-plate. There is also an example of a planted window with its projecting sill and mortices for bracket supports and peg holes in studs for window jambs.

Internal
The moulded ceiling-beam, joists and jetty to ground floor are of the same or similar period at each end, probably mid C16th. The Back Row part has a hollow and ogee moulding with broach stop to ceiling-beam and chamfered flat section joists with curved stops defining the angled end wall to the street. Whereas the High Street part has a double ogee moulding (cut back) with curved stop to ceiling-beam, plain flat section joists without stops and a continuous mortice in the girding-beam (moulding? cut back) defining the end wall.
The first-floor of the High Street end has a 2-bay plaster ceiling of raised panels with moulded surround (see detail) partly obscuring the arch-braced truss. A plaster inscription in the gable-end has the date and initials
1665 I IM

The narrow bay space between hall and front 2-unit part is uncertain, but may have contained a stair or possibly a smoke bay? A mortise in the moulded ceiling-beam indicates a partition as shown on plan, either for a stair or a passage to the side of a framed fireplace? At this point the ground falls approx. 50 cm. with modern joists above to the hall area with a modern ceiling-beam at the top end. The hall central ceiling-beam has medium chamfer and straight-cut stops to similar joists, probably inserted into an open hall in the mid-C17th. A stone walled fireplace (now part removed) with tall brick chimney was situated at the lower end of the hall cutting into the C17th joists which would have formerly spanned evenly on each side of the ceiling-beam. This indicates that the narrow bay at the upper end may have been a smoke-bay for the hall fireplace. Externally there are dressed stone square-headed windows to each floor at this lower end. It is possible that the ground-floor window may once have lit the dais-end of the hall and that in the mid C17th a stair and first-floor window was added in this position, prior to insertion of the fireplace in the early C18th.

An original passage entry from Back Row is indicated by a series of recesses in the second left ceiling-joist, that were for a wattle and daub partition, continuing up to the moulded ceiling-beam. Two mortices in the third left joist, beyond the moulded ceiling-beam, suggest a doorway at this point, in to the rear room. It seems likely that the opposite High Street entry was in a similar position, as present, each providing access to the central hall.

Comments
The storied front to the street with rear hall of this site can be compared to 27-31 Vale Street (Just right shop) which also has a 2-bay open-hall and storied front, with flat-section joists to a moulded ceiling-beam.
Siop Clwyd is a remarkably good survival of a sub-medieval town-house with open hall, first-floor accommodation and shops, situated in the centre of a market square.


Visited, Geoff Ward,23/01/2003