10, Sparrow Hill

10 Sparrow Hill, Loughborough

A house of early-to-mid 18th-century date, constructed in brick with a pantile roof. The building faces the churchyard of the medieval parish church of All Saints and may originally have formed part of the Manor House complex. Two late 18th-century cottages and one early-to-mid 19th-century cottage are attached to the rear.

The front elevation is a two-storey structure with four windows. The rendered facade has 20th-century shop windows inserted on the ground floor. The first-floor window frames are original 18th century with early 19th-century sashes, crowned by moulded brick eaves. The original steep-pitched roof has been re-covered in pantiles to the front and corrugated sheeting to the rear, with two dormer windows inserted. The rear comprises two late 18th-century brick cottages and a projecting early-to-mid 19th-century brick cottage, all with 20th-century replacement windows. The area between the main house and the first cottage was infilled at a later date.

Internally, the ground floor contains a heavy chamfered beam with bar stops. The panelled staircase door incorporates early 19th-century bottle glass. The main cellar has foundations of local granite and may pre-date the house itself. The staircase from ground to first floor retains its original 18th-century treads (visible from the small cellar underneath), although the balustrade is a 19th-century replacement. The first floor preserves its original plan form with two large principal rooms. Both rooms contain heavy chamfered bridging beams with bar stops. The doors are original 18th-century two-panelled doors and the windows retain their 18th-century frames with early 19th-century sashes. In the left-hand room the fireplace has been relocated closer to the window. In the right-hand room, part of a cupboard with fielded panels survives to the left of the fireplace. The plank doors to the attic storey are early 19th century with original heavy hinges. The roof appears to be the original 18th-century structure, with some purlins visible through the plasterwork. The second cottage, dating from the late 18th century, features a large open fireplace on the ground floor with the original steep-chamfered beam inside to improve draught and possible remnants of the original fire surround. The early-to-mid 19th-century cottage contains two identical round-arched fireplaces on the first floor with cable moulding.

At the rear of the site stands a block used for meat preparation, possibly tripe processing, dating probably from the 1920s. The interior is finished in white glazed bricks with a raised work surface containing two basins with taps underneath and storage space to the left.

The building was historically used as two public houses—the Shakespearian and the Crown and Thistle—before being converted to commercial use. The insertion of shop windows on the ground floor occurred in the 20th century. The 1920s meat-preparation block suggests use of the premises as a butcher's shop at that time.