Repair work has recently uncovered a c1600, timber-frame truss-partition embedded in the gable-end of an 18th century stone built 2 ? storey house, now a cafe. The cafe, must have been built against and communicated with the timber-frame structure which was subsequently demolished, except for its end frame, hidden behind render.
This end timber-frame has haunched principal-posts with braces to its tie-beam. There are mortices for trusses with two studs to an assumed collar. There is a cross-beam between two tiers, each of four vertically rectangular panels, formerly with wattle & daub infill, presumably once with a sill-beam. A surviving mortice in the principal post indicates that it was up-braced to the front wall-plate.
Mortices in the studs with peg holes must have formerly supported tenoned axial ceiling-beams for a first-floor. Similar mortices were noted in the lower studs below the cross-beam, probably for a beamed and boarded ground-floor.
A chamfer to the tie-beam soffit of one panel marks a secondary doorway into the adjoining cafe, blocked in later wattle & daub. The panel's vertical studs have grooves on one side with auger holes on the other side to take horizontal split oak staves and interwoven wattle and daub. The later blocking of the doorway is infilled differently with vertical staves to wattle and daub.
The site was probably associated with and close by the entrance to Crispin's Yard where a late 19th century property map shows a former courtyard of buildings (now a car park) opposite the prison. The OS 1875 map also show these buildings.
Recorded at request of Phil Ebrill, Denbigh Conservation Office, Geoff Ward, 07/09/2012.