SDO15358 - Toby's, 1 Bimport, Shaftesbury, Dorset. Historic Building Recording

'Context One Archaeological Services Ltd (COAS) carried out targeted historic building recording at Toby’s, 1 Bimport, Shaftesbury, Dorset (the ‘Site’) in June 2016. The building is Grade II Listed (List entry number: 1108756). The project was commissioned and funded by Mr Jon Long (J.K.L Enterprises Ltd). The property of 1 Bimport dates from c. 1835 and occupies the site of Lord Arundel’s c. 1590 town house. The historic building recording relates to the second floor, which is to be converted into flats following the most recent use of the building as a former young person’s community centre. This was required as a condition of Listed Building Consent to record the adaptions to the building which reflect its supposed former ‘industrial’ activities. It has formerly been suggested that these activities may relate to the manufacture of buttons. The historic building recording concluded that the large attic within the south-west wing of 1 Bimport was utilized for light industry. This was most likely to have been as a warehouse as opposed to any manufacturing, with the cottage industries of button-making (together with cloth, silk and leather making) replaced by the mechanized industries of the Midlands and the north of England by the early to mid-19th century. If the attic was originally intended for any of these purposes, this was short-lived and no evidence remains to indicate what this may have been. Instead, several indicators strongly point towards it being a storage facility, initially accessed from what appears to be an adjoining office but which at some point was given separate access from the first floor. The remaining attic rooms are domestic, with remnants of wallpaper and a couple of fireplaces. In terms of phasing, the south-west wing and western part of 1 Bimport appears to be earlier than the corner of the building, which supports the theory that this is a later in-fill within a previously open space. The north-west end of 5 High Street is also an extension.'