2-4, Cruxwell Street

2-4 Cruxwell Street, Bromyard

This building originated as a single dwelling in the late 18th century and has since been subdivided and extended. It now contains a café on the ground floor of No. 2 and domestic accommodation in No. 4. The structure was originally a single range which was extended to the east in the 19th century, with further extensions added to the rear at various periods.

The building comprises a two-bay, three-storey range and a two-storey single-bay range to the west, both with pitched roofs aligned roughly east-west parallel to Cruxwell Street. Materials include some timber framing with brick infill, and rendered rough stone to the front and side elevations. The roof is slate with a central brick chimney stack.

The principal façade is rendered and painted, divided into two distinct sections. The three-storey main range is subdivided into two halves. At ground-floor level, each half has a canted bay window beneath a hood, which is of slightly different depth on each side. No. 4 (left) has a modern window and fielded-panel solid door. No. 2 has a large glazed window with staggered glazing bars and a moulded doorcase with fielded panels to the return and an arched head. Each bay on the upper floors has a window; those on No. 4 retain original sash windows, eight-over-eight at the first floor and four-over-four at the second floor, all with projecting stone cills.

The two-storey single-bay extension to the right has a window opening of the same shape on the first floor. The ground floor features a nine-light shop window and a fielded-panel door with six lights to the top half, beneath a plain fascia.

Cruxwell Street is one of the principal thoroughfares in Bromyard, running east from the vicarage and church. It was known as Corkeswalle Vicus in the late 13th century and recorded as Croxewalle Streate in 1575. Where it meets Old Road to the west, it was known as Sheep Street in the early 20th century. The central area of the town south of the church and around the market place appears to have been fully built up by the early 17th century, though some plots have been redeveloped since that time.

The interior was not inspected, though internal reordering is evident, with the café occupying the ground floors of the extension and the right-hand side of the main range.