24, 26 AND 28, BROAD STREET

A pair of houses dating from the 17th or 18th century, situated on Broad Street in Bromyard. The buildings have been substantially altered and extended, particularly to their street-facing elevations.

The street front comprises a brick facade of the early 19th century, with three storeys above a cellar beneath No. 24. The north front of both buildings displays two bays to the first and second storeys, each fitted with sash windows with painted, splayed heads. No. 26 has a plat band of three bricks depth between the first and second floors. No. 24 features a 19th-century lantern with iron bracket positioned between the windows at first floor level. A later 19th-century shop frontage projects slightly across the ground floor of both properties, comprising a stall riser below plate glass windows divided by mullions with carved, splayed capitals. Above the windows is a transom with ventilation grilles and a fascia with cornice. A lobby entry is positioned at right of centre with a glazed door, while fluted pilasters with consoles and gabled caps terminate either end of the front. The western flank is blind but shows the scar of a former doorway. Two gables feature on this elevation, the left one displaying a diaper design in black brick, with the former, lower roofline also visible.

The roof has been raised at some stage, as evidenced by roof trusses visible at second floor level. The slate roof is of differing heights between the two properties, being slightly higher over No. 24.

The rear elevations comprise a portion of brick walling with sash windows at the left, while the remainder is of rubble stone construction with some large blocks of dressed stone to the rear of No. 26. A door with six flush panels and heavy doorframe is present. No. 24 has two substantial chimney stacks to its rear.

Interior features, informed by research commissioned in 2009, include a dogleg staircase of three flights in No. 24 of early 18th-century date, with turned balusters to the lower flight (possibly later alterations) and twisted balusters to the two upper flights (appearing to be original), with a moulded, ramped handrail. No. 26 retains timber-framing to the partition wall with No. 30 Broad Street, and features a spiral staircase with square newel. Both ground and first floors have wide doors with two fielded panels.

The building has a portion of rubble walling to the rear of No. 26, with timber framing visible to an interior wall of the same property.

Bromyard is a small market town first recorded circa 840. Nos. 24, 26 and 28 Broad Street occupy one of the principal thoroughfares adjoining the market square. The street appears to have been fully built up by the early 17th century, though various plots have undergone redevelopment since that period.