The building at 21 Market Street is a fascinating amalgam of two very different phases of development and periods of history.

What we see today is a Victorian shop facing onto Market Street – and a very nice shop it is too – with the front decoratively built in hardwood with etched glass and a faience tiled panel and step to the doorway. The panel subject of apple picking and name on the step tell us straight away that this was a greengrocers shop owned by the Smith family.

Once inside however we start to find evidence of a much older building on a completely different alignment. In fact the Victorian shop front is some way forward into Market Street compared to the end of the older building which actually faced to the east – towards Kings Head Street. Internally parts of the old timber frame are exposed and one carved beam helpfully dates the build to 1588.

The Elizabethan house has been enveloped by the Victorian building to the front and right as we look at it from the street so that the bressumer beam for the jetty now appears halfway up the staircase and the elaborately carved main door jambs and head from the old building are partly in situ as an arcade structure at the rear and partly relocated inside.

The carved remnants are full of intriguing symbolism; we find figures that look like a king and queen, animals including a pelican, deer and beaver and initials – OENS or DENS on the jambs and LC on the bressumer.

The original building was of 2 storeys plus attic and the ground floor had two full bays plus a narrow one at the northern end. The house would have originally have been built on or at the edge of the medieval market area so it is likely to have had some commercial use as well as residential.

The current shop front dates from the beginning of the 20th century but the conversion to the footprint we see today is early 19th century.

Despite all the cryptic, carved clues we cannot come up with a candidate for the 16th century builder, decode their loyalties in life or convincingly suggest why the building was built the way it was.

In 1851 we find the building on the census record next door to the Royal Oak Inn. It is occupied by James Durrant, his wife Ann, their five children and a house servant. James is listed as a “town councillor and butcher employer 1 man and 2 boys”.

In the 1850s Market Street was numbered and we can track the property as 21 Market Street.

When the 1861 census is taken 21 Market Street is still occupied by Ann Durrant, now 45, a widow and a butcher by trade. She lives in the premises with her daughter and four sons – two of which are butchers – and they also have a house servant.

In 1871 James Durrant is living at 21 Market Street and is listed as “butcher town councillor”. On the day of the census he has a visitor Ann Eliza Conrad and her four children. Ann is listed as an “architects wife” and there is still a live-in domestic servant.

In 1881 James Durrant is still at 21 and noted as a butcher employing one man and one boy. The man in question is his brother Edward who is also living at the premises and their mother Ann, now 66, is back living with them. They still have a live-in domestic servant.

In 1883 we see that butcher and town councillor James Durrant became the mayor of Harwich.

In June 1887 a death is recorded in the East Anglian Daily Times: Durrant. — On the 20th Jane, at 21, Market Street, Harwich, in her 73rd year, Ann, the wife of the late James Durrant. Friends will kindly accept this intimation.

In 1891 we find Edward Durrant at 21 Market Street with his wife Emma and three young children. Edward is listed as “butcher and insurance agent” and the family have a live-in nursemaid for the children as well as a domestic servant. In the same year we find that James Durrant has become mayor of Harwich for the second time and is advertising a bakers shop and house to let in Church Street – with applications to be made to 21 Market Street.

In 1901 Edward and Emma Durrant are still at 21 Market Street and Edward is listed as a butcher but without any additional trades this time. They now have seven children aged from four to thirteen and a domestic servant.

In the East Anglian Daily Times of 18th November 1905 a Mrs. Smith of 21 Market Street is advertising for a general servant.

In 1911 we find Sydney Smith, his young son and a general domestic servant living in 8 rooms at 21 Market Street. Sydney is listed as a fruiterer, working from the premises and employing two people. This ties up with the greengrocer business previously at 6 Market Street which is a part of the larger market gardening business started by Sydney’s father William. It further implies that the Smith family made the branded embellishments to the shop front when they moved in around 1905.

The building at 21 Market Street was surveyed and interpreted as part of the Harwich Architectural Survey Project which was funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

An interpretation of the timber framing at 21 Market Street by Brenda and Elphin Watkin is available for download here.