45-47 Mill Street, Leominster

45-47 Mill Street, Leominster

A house of 15th-century origins, now divided into two properties, with later alterations and additions.

Number 45 has brick, stone and rendered walls with concrete roof tiles. Number 47 is constructed in brick and stone with a stone chimney and slate roof coverings. Both properties are rectangular in plan, oriented with their shorter sides to the east and west. Number 47 extends further to the rear to the north.

Both properties are two stories high beneath a pitched roof with a gable to the west. A brick dentil course runs at eaves level. All doors and windows are 20th-century insertions.

The front elevation faces south onto Mill Street. At ground floor level, numbers 45 and 47 each have a doorway on their left-hand sides followed by a single window. Number 45's window is positioned towards the east, while number 47's window sits immediately to the right of its door, which is sheltered by a small pitched-roof porch. The ground floor of number 45 is of stone construction, with brick above on the first floor. Number 47 has a few courses of stone visible at ceiling level in line with number 45, but is otherwise brick both above and below this point, with a bricked-up opening visible at ground floor level. At first-floor level, both properties have a single window; number 45's sits directly above its ground floor window, while number 47's is positioned to the east of the window beneath it. A large stone stack rises through the south slope of the roof at the boundary between the two properties on number 47's side.

The west elevation of number 45 is solid, constructed in brick to eaves level with the gable rendered. Timber framing is visible at first-floor level on the rear north elevation of both numbers 45 and 47. A late 20th-century addition has been made to the rear of number 47.

Three roof trusses survive in the interior, dating from before the mid-16th century and likely of 15th-century date. These define two bays of a medieval hall house. The western truss, now forming the west gable of number 45, is constructed of two principal rafters with a cambered collar and straight tiebeam, with two straight struts between tiebeam and collar. Smoke blackening visible at the apex on its eastern side indicates that it pre-dates the 16th-century ceiling installed in number 45 and may be contemporary with the other two trusses, which are both cruck trusses.

The central cruck truss originally divided the two-bay hall and now marks the party wall between numbers 45 and 47. The northern blade can be seen on the landing of the quarter-turn winder stair between floors in number 45, while the south blade is visible on the ground floor south of the fireplace. In number 47, the apex on the eastern side is visible, displaying arch braces extending diagonally from the centre of a collar beam to meet the cruck blades near their tops. The collar has an ogee shape carved at the centre of its base. Cusping decoration at the apex of this truss, combined with similar cusping on the arched bracing and collar, creates a quatrefoil flanked by trefoils at the top of the truss—decoration designed to be viewed over the centre of the open hall below. Trenches for now-raised purlins run along the outer edges of the cruck blades. The west side in number 45 is heavily smoke blackened.

The eastern cruck truss originally marked the divide between the second bay of the hall and a possible further service bay to the east, and is now located within the party wall between numbers 47 and 49. This cruck is visible at first-floor level where it has a tiebeam near ceiling level. A re-used, weathered timber carved with quatrefoils and formerly external has been inserted horizontally below the tiebeam.

A large stone fireplace occupies the south end of the party wall between numbers 45 and 47, with a 21st-century timber bressumer inserted beneath the central truss, likely at the same time as the ceiling installation. This ceiling features two long, stop-chamfered beams with shorter bridging beams forming six panels, and appears to date to the 16th century.