30 East St Helen Street, St Ethelwold’s
Behind the elegant Georgian façade of No.30 there is a long sequence of building and adaptation to new requirements. Archaeologists have found evidence for Roman metalworking on the site. Some features in the cellar are possibly thirteenth-century, and its ceiling beams are early sixteenth-century. The long timber-framed range to the rear, however, dates from 1453-4, and has a fine window of this date.
By the sixteenth century, it was probably commercial premises, and a brewery was established here by Thomas Hulcotts in the late seventeenth. The front house was probably built around 1707 for the marriage of Thomas’s daughter, Hannah, to William Hawkins, a rich widower. In the mid-nineteenth century it was Pemberton’s coalyard. Since then the house has been used as an antique shop and a kindergarten. It now belongs to a trust which runs it as seminar space and accommodation for those seeking peace and contemplation.
St Ethelwold’s is regularly open to the public for events such as art exhibitions.
See Glossary for explanations of technical terms.
© AAAHS and contributors 2013
