Queen's Aid House

The Queen's Aid House, or 41 High Street, is a timber-framed, black-and-white Elizabethan merchant's house in Nantwich, Cheshire, England. It is located on the High Street immediately off the town square and opposite the junction with Castle Street (at SJ6512752298). It is listed at grade II. Built shortly after the fire of 1583 by Thomas Cleese, a local craftsman, it has three storeys with attics, and features ornamental panelling, overhangs or jetties at each storey, and a 19th-century oriel window. The building is best known for its contemporary inscription commemorating Elizabeth I's aid in rebuilding the town, which gives the building its name. It has been used as a café, as well as various types of shop.

The High Street was the home of the wealthiest townspeople in the 1580s, and the houses dating from the rebuilding form the finest examples of post-fire architecture in the town. The modern High Street still contains many other good examples of Elizabethan timber-framed buildings, all of which date from after the fire; these include the grade-II*-listed number 46, which stands opposite the Queen's Aid House, and the grade-I-listed Crown Inn.

In December 1583, a fire destroyed most of Nantwich to the east of the River Weaver. According to the contemporary account of Richard Wilbraham, 150 houses burned down, and the devastation was such that a national relief fund was organised to help pay for the town's rebuilding. The appeal was successful: "every person damaged in the loss of their houses have been holpen and relieved in some portion".Elizabeth I personally contributed – the only time that she is known to have done so – giving £1000 (around £200,000 today).

The Queen's Aid House was built as a merchant's house shortly after the fire by local craftsman Thomas Cleese. Cleese (also known as Clease or Clowes) appears to have been the town's master builder from around 1550 until after the fire. He is also known to have built Churche's Mansion, a grade-I-listed Elizabethan mansion at the end of Hospital Street, as well as the roofs to the north and south transepts of St Mary's Church. The building bears a signed inscription dated 1584, and the house is likely to have been completed that year. The original owner is unknown. Based on the signature to the inscription, it has been suggested that Cleese built the house for himself; before the fire, however, he was recorded as a tenant in Pepper Street. In the original layout, there would have been a shop on the ground floor facing the street, with a hall behind giving access to a buttery and kitchen.

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