23 Bargate

House, now offices, built in 1854 for Dr Grange, Town Clerk, with later 19th-century additions to the rear. The building is constructed in red brick with ashlar dressings and a Welsh slate roof, designed in the Castellated Gothic Revival style.

The main early range is approximately rectangular on plan with a double-depth arrangement and a central entrance hall serving the front rooms.

The exterior presents two storeys across three bays in a symmetrical composition. A chamfered plinth runs around the base, with setback buttresses and buttresses flanking the central bay and projecting at first-floor level with offsets. The central entrance is approached by steps and features a four-centred arched doorway with a two-fold board door decorated with elaborate strap hinges, all set within an ashlar surround beneath a dripmould. On either side at ground floor are canted bay windows containing five narrow four-centred arched lights with stone mullions and glazing bars in chamfered reveals, each topped with a dripmould and coped castellated parapet. The first floor has a central two-light window and flanking three-light windows, all with wood-mullioned casements containing pointed lights in chamfered ashlar reveals. A string course runs across the façade, and the building is crowned by a coped castellated parapet with the buttresses projecting as finials capped with ashlar gablets. The main roof is hipped.

Two roof stacks with triple shafts are linked by moulded ashlar caps. Additional stacks project from the left and right returns, each featuring a cogged brick cornice and triple shafts (a central square shaft flanked by octagonal shafts) beneath a moulded ashlar cap. Similar stacks occur to the rear.

The left and right returns echo the front elevation with similar buttresses and parapets. The right return features a chimneybreast to the left, flanked by slightly-projecting four-light mullioned and transomed ashlar windows beneath sloping stone roofs. The chimneybreast carries a relief plaque within a foiled cartouche surround. To its right is a French window with an overlight containing coloured glass arms. Two first-floor single-light windows with ashlar surrounds sit to the left, with later casements to the right beneath lintels. A set-back section at the far right contains a partly blocked four-centred arched doorway and a first-floor oriel window with moulded ashlar base and mullioned window featuring stained glass.

The left return displays a similar chimneybreast. To its right is a semi-circular bow window with wood mullions and transoms and five leaded lights, topped by a moulded cornice and flat roof. To the left of the chimneybreast stands a square brick ground-floor bay with a three-light mullioned and transomed leaded window. Projecting further to the left is a square turret rising three storeys high, featuring plain windows to the first floor, slit lights to the second, a corbelled brick cornice with imitation machicolations, an ashlar string course, and a coped castellated parapet.

Beyond the turret to the left extends a kitchen wing with a ground-floor bay window and entrance porch. The porch features a pointed chamfered doorway and coped castellated parapet, with first-floor sill string course, sashes with glazing bars, and leaded windows to the first floor.

The interior contains an entrance and staircase hall with panelled walls and a polychrome tiled floor. An open-well cantilevered wooden staircase with four-centred arched doorways serves the hall. The front rooms are distinguished by ornate 17th-century-style plasterwork ceilings with central roses and pendants. Original stone and marble chimneypieces adorn the main rooms. The kitchen retains its original cooking range.

To the rear stands a former garden folly tower and gateway in a similar Gothic Revival style (listed separately under Brighowgate). Twentieth-century temporary office additions to the south are not of special architectural or historical interest.