Gilson Bakery - Head Street, Colchester, UK
N 51° 53.340 E 000° 53.762
31U E 355212 N 5750784
This building stands at the junction of Head Street and Church Street in Colchester. The plaque is on the Church Street face of the building.
Waymark Code: WMRNHG
Location: Eastern England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 07/13/2016
Views: 2
The plaque carries the wording:
This building
which is listed as being of
historic and architectural interest
was erected as a bakery in 1698. Later
records show that it was owned during the
18C by the Gilsons, a famous family of bakers.
It was extensively damaged by fire which
raged for three days over Christmas 1834
and destroyed many of its neighbours.
The plaque of the borough arms on
the gable end commemorates
the restoration.
1972
The building is Grade II listed with the entry at the Historic England website advising:
Originally an early C16 house, 2 storeys, timber-framed and plastered, the roofs tiled. Now much altered to a baker's shop and restaurant. The upper storey projects on the east front and north side with a heavy curved angle bracket; the north side has an original moulded bressumer and curved brackets with attached shafts with moulded capitals.
The Colchester Historic Buildings Forum website also tells us:
There is a modern oval plaque on the side of the building, dated 1972. The modern plaque states that the buildng was erected in 1698. This must refer to a major reconstruction of the building rather than its construction, since parts of it are even older than that. The plaque states that the building was badly damaged by a fire in 1834 which lasted for three days over Christmas and destroyed adjacent buildings. No 21 is, indeed, flanked by buildings (to the west and north) which post-date 1835! A much smaller, old plaque on the apex of the gable overlooking Head Street gives two different dates, but they presumably refer to the same two events: 1835, which must refer to the rebuilding work following the fire in December 1834; and 1689. This leaves the oldest date uncertain, ie should it be 1689 or 1698?
A Nathaniel Gilson was trading as a baker in Colchester in 1647. In 1693, a Daniel Gilson, a Presbyterian preacher, registered a newly built Presbyterian meeting house in St Helen's Lane, but he may not have been part of the baking Gilson family; he served from 1692 until his death in 1728. The baking Gilson family seem to have owned properties in Colchester which they rented out and also land outside Colchester.