Blagraves

House, now restaurant. 16th and 17th century with 17th and 18th century alterations and 20th century restoration. Built of large blocks of coursed squared sandstone with ashlar quoins and dressings and an ashlar projecting bay; roof of stone flags with stone gable copings and brick chimneys. The building contains front and rear rooms, sloping steeply downhill to the right; a rear left yard wall with internal stair is now partly demolished.

Exterior

Three storeys and attic; three-window range. Steps lead up to a first-floor door in the second bay with a plain stone surround, inserted into a window of which the right jamb remains. To the right of the third bay is a flat Tudor head to a chamfered stone surround. To its left is a renewed two-light Yorkshire sliding sash with glazing bars. An eroded first-floor drip-string sits over the central door, with a three-light stone-mullioned window at right. Above the central door and in the centre of the third bay on the second floor are smaller three-light windows, all with leaded casements and deeply chamfered stone surrounds. An inserted full-height 17th century bay at the left rises into the fourth attic storey, with mostly restored masonry. The ground floor has a Yorkshire sliding sash, whilst the upper windows have three-light fronts with moulded sills, stone mullions and panelled angle pilasters. A pulvinated frieze and cornice ornament the first and second floors. The third floor has a cornice and side corbels supporting a high coped gable forming a pediment, with an eaves gutter on the returns. The steeply pitched roof has gable copings; a tall corniced chimney sits at the front of the ridge at the left, with a smaller coped chimney at the end of the ridge at the right. Four stone brackets at second-floor level, three bearing stone figures of musicians, are an early 20th century addition. Late 20th century flood-lights are attached to the second floor. A 19th-century-style plain iron handrail leads to the steps. In the yard, the wall on the north side has a slit light to a former intra-mural stair.

Interior

The ground floor features broad glazing bars to a north horizontal sash and two-panel window shutters. The central window was blocked when an 18th century stair was inserted and subsequently converted into a cupboard with a two-panel door and H-hinges. The south chimneypiece has a shaped lintel with pulvinated frieze and dentilled cornice. Stairs were inserted to the rear of this room; a small blocked window appears in the south stair wall. The rear room contains a blocked two-light mullioned window in the south wall and a register grate in a blocked plain stone corner fire in the north wall.

The first-floor front room is accessed from the inserted stair from the street and from the stair to the rear. A large south chimneypiece has stopped moulding to the jambs and an arched lintel. To the left of the fireplace is an 18th century cupboard with fluted pilasters. The ceiling features stucco decoration of scrolled strapwork cross with a central inscription reading WI over B and dated 1672, inserted between stop-chamfered beams. Fragments of cornice moulding remain, though the ceiling is partly repaired. A richly carved panelled door, perhaps an insertion, is also present.

The upper floors were not inspected. The second floor is reported to have a north fireplace with moulded surround and a 19th century addition of overmantel and tiles. The attic is reported to have an 18th century chimneypiece with decorated tile surround and painted wall tracts, probably dating from schoolroom use, and a single tie-beam truss with convex halving.

Extensive cellars run beneath the front and rear, continuing under the yard to the rear.

An important building occupying an important position in the street forming the approach to the castle and church from the bridge.