53 King Street, Blackburn, Lancashire- Building Investigation

Capita Symonds requested that Oxford Archaeology North (OA North) undertake a building investigation of a townhouse at 53 King Street, Blackburn, Lancashire (SD 6790 2780) (Fig 1), prior to its potential demolition. As the building is grade II listed Lancashire County Archaeology Service (LCAS) recommended a building investigation of English Heritage (2006) Level III standard, which included a desk based assessment in conjunction with a site investigation comprising written descriptions, an extensive photographic record, and drawings of the floor plans and sections.
The historical research in conjunction with an addendum to a desk-based assessment compiled by Egerton Lea Consultancy Ltd (2007b) revealed that the house was built in the late eighteenth century and not c 1830, as had originally been assumed. The empty plot was purchased by a carpenter John Edleston the Elder, who built the existing townhouse, which he and his son (also John Edleston) would occupy till the early nineteenth century. During the nineteenth century, the house was acquired by a local calico magnate called James Pearson, then a surgeon called James Pickup, before being sold and used as the superintendent’s residence for the new County Police Station, which was built on the site of the demolished 51 King Street.
The townhouse is a solitary reminder of what was once a very desirable residential area of Blackburn. Unfortunately, the only other structure of comparable age and status that still remains is 61 King street (Egerton Lea 2007a), whilst the rest of the buildings comprise modern twentieth century shops of assorted descriptions and a builder’s merchants. The property appears to be structurally sound from the exterior, but the interior is in a particularly poor state of repair. The investigation has revealed that the townhouse has been stripped of most of its internal features, but the splendid decoration, which appears to date to the early nineteenth century is still retained. In most other aspects, the building appears to be essentially the same as it was when it was first built by John Edleston the Elder in the late eighteenth century.