1, 2, 2A, AND 3, MINSTER COURT

Four houses forming three sides of an irregular courtyard. These buildings represent late 17th and early 18th-century remodelling of medieval structures dating from the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, with further alterations and extensions made in the early 19th and 20th centuries.

The buildings are constructed of brick—some orange-brown, mostly in random bond with some Flemish bond—the majority painted or rendered. Medieval masonry survives in the lower parts of Nos 1 and 3. Roofs are of plain tile towards the Court, with pantile and slate elsewhere, topped with brick stacks. Timber eaves cornices are a feature throughout.

No. 1 presents a 2-storey front with attic towards the Court, comprising three windows beneath a bold modillion cornice. To the left is a gable-ended return, while to the right a lower 2-bay front with hipped roof features a projecting flat-roofed porch in the re-entrant angle. The porch contains a front door of six raised and fielded panels with a divided overlight. Above the porch is a round-headed staircase sash window. The first floor has a round-headed window over the porch and two 12-pane sashes with brick sills to the right. Two 12-pane sashes with brick sills light the left return on both floors. A moulded 5-course raised brick first floor band runs across the front. Gabled dormers contain 2x2-pane casement windows. The gable wall has a narrow 8-pane sash on each floor and two oculi in the gable end.

Nos 2 and 2A share a 4-bay front towards the Court. Each has a front door similar to No. 1, set in a moulded surround with a modillion cornice hood and flat porch on wrought-iron brackets. The doors are flanked by 12-pane sashes, with similar windows on the first floor, those to No. 2A taller than those to No. 2. A 3-course stepped first floor band and cogged brick eaves course run across both properties. No. 2 has a 20th-century parapet masking a set-back roof; No. 2A has a hipped roof. Both have small-pane casements in flat-topped dormers.

No. 3 has a 2-storey front of five windows facing Minster Yard, a 3-bay range at the rear fronting Minster Court, and a 2-storey extension in the re-entrant. The Minster Yard front contains four sash windows on the ground floor—one of 20 panes and three of 12 panes, one notably narrow. The first floor has two tall unequal 15-pane sashes flanking a narrow unequal 10-pane sash, all with painted sills. Timber eaves guttering on block brackets, returned at the left end, leads to a hipped roof. The left return features a 16-pane sash and a small inserted sash on the ground floor; on the first floor, one tall unequal 15-pane sash with a brick sill. A 3-course stepped brick first floor band is returned at the rear and over the rear range. The entrance front has two 6-panel doors, one with inset glazed panels. Above each door is a round-headed radial-glazed sash window. Two flat-topped dormers with 2x2-pane casement windows light the attics. The rear elevation includes a tripartite window on the ground floor with a 16-pane centre sash and a 16-pane sash further right. On the first floor, a tall round-headed radial-glazed sash window and 8- or 12-pane sashes at different levels light the space. A single flat-topped attic dormer with a 2x4-pane window is positioned above. Most windows throughout feature 1-course segmental brick arches. Nos 1 and 3 bear Sun insurance marks on their Court-facing fronts.

Interior features are substantial. No. 1 contains a mid-18th-century open string staircase with turned balusters. An early 18th-century former kitchen fireplace and three other 18th-century fireplaces survive. The first floor includes two fine plaster ceilings—one in the main reception room, one over the staircase.

In Nos 2 and 2A, a ground floor room contains an early 17th-century plaster ceiling of strapwork panels enclosing doves, fleur-de-lys and other motifs. Eighteenth and early 19th-century fittings include fireplaces, doors, door and window surrounds, and cornices. The roofs over both properties date from the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries.

No. 3's ground floor includes a brick-vaulted cellar with bins intact accessed from a rear room. A room to the left of the stairs has a 6-panel door backed with battened panels. The main staircase features an open string with turned balusters and a moulded ramped-up handrail; the stairwell is fitted with raised and fielded dado panelling. The staircase window has a continuous round-arched architrave with a fluted band beneath the sill. Back stairs rise to the attic with columns on vase balusters, square newels with attached half-balusters and a moulded handrail.

The first floor landing ceiling has a moulded cornice and moulded plaster panels with an oval centre. The passage features dado rails and a frieze of flutes and paterae. The rear room has a blocked fireplace in a surround enriched with composition mouldings. Rooms flanking the staircase have moulded skirtings and dado rails; fireplaces enriched with composition mouldings; and enriched cornices—one with dentils and egg-and-dart, the other with palmette, flutes and paterae. A front room has a cornice with applied foliage decoration to the frieze and a late 19th-century fireplace. Nineteenth-century double doors of raised and fielded panelling lead to a subdivided front room with a frieze of flutes and paterae and panelled shutters in panelled window reveals.

The attic passage is partly lined with 17th-century run-through panelling incorporating one door; a similar door opens to the room opposite. The roof is of principal rafter construction with through purlins. Several early doors survive throughout the house.