52 AND 54, TOWN GATE

The building at 52 and 54 Town Gate, Sowerby Bridge, is a house dating from 1662, as indicated by the inscription "INEN 1662". Constructed of coursed squared stone with a stone slate roof, it is now divided into two dwellings. The original structure comprises two storeys and three bays, with a wing extending to the rear left. A chamfered plinth is visible, and the windows are double-chamfered mullion windows. The original doorway, centrally located, features a cyma-moulded surround and an ogee-shaped head with a date panel in the lintel. To the left of the doorway is a board door set within a plain stone surround with a block above the lintel, bearing an inverted shield with chevrons. A restored five-light window is present in the first bay, and a restored six-light window in the second. A continuous dripmould runs above these windows, terminating with a lozenge stop on the left and a heart stop on the right. On the first floor, each bay has a three-over-five-light window, all with decorative-stopped hoodmoulds. Chimneys are positioned at each end of the building. The rear of the main range features a 20th-century door to the left of a three-light window on each floor. A pent roofed porch, situated in the angle with the wing, includes a flat-faced, two-light mullion window and a smaller light above. The wing itself is distinguished by quoins, kneelers, an ashlar coping, and an end stack. The left return of the wing features a five-light ground-floor window and a two-light window above. A cross-window under a dripmould is present on the left return, above which is a two-light window. The gable of the main range exposes rafter ends and the exposed ends of the purlins. The wing’s left return exhibits a five-light window to each floor, the lower one having round-headed lights. The interior of number 54, on the left-hand side, reveals a front room with a large, segmental-arched fireplace with stepped arrises and skewbacks, along with two stop-chamfered spine-beams. The rear room also features a large, quoined, segmental-arched fireplace with skewbacks, stop-chamfered spine-beams, joists, and a wall plate set in the right wall. On the first floor, a king-post truss is located between bays one and two, containing mortices in the soffit of the beam for studs from a former partition wall. Another truss, likely with a king-post and a partial angle strut, is situated between the main range and the wing. Number 52 contains a triangular-headed fireplace with voussoirs, a stepped surround, and a chamfered cornice.