34 And 36, High Street

A pair of late 18th-century townhouses of three storeys with cellars, situated on the High Street in Bromyard. Each house is two rooms deep.

The principal facade is constructed of brick laid in Flemish bond, rising from a stone plinth, with two brick chimneystacks. The north-west elevation is clad in slate-hung tiles, while the rear is built of coursed rubble stone. The building is roughly square in plan and oriented north-west to south-east in line with the High Street.

The front elevation is symmetrically arranged with six windows and two doors. The windows are vertically aligned with one for each room on each floor. They feature projecting cills and flat-arched lintels in brick, with sash boxes exposed and flush with the brickwork. The ground and first floors have eight over eight hornless sashes, whilst the second floor has four over four sashes. The second-floor window to No. 34 has been modified but remains similar in appearance. Both front doors have moulded architraves with shaped brackets. No. 34 retains a rectangular fanlight with marginal glazing bars; No. 36 has a modern plain-glazed over-door light.

The rear elevation is asymmetrical, with a window to each room of each floor. The windows on the rear of No. 34 are positioned off-centre due to the stairway location. Two small windows light the stairway. All rear windows are casements with segmental arched brick lintels. Both second-floor windows and one first-floor window retain original iron casements; the remaining windows are later replacement two-light casements with fixed overlights.

The two houses are similarly laid out but have differently positioned staircases. Each has a back-to-back fireplace in each room. A small rear range adjoining No. 34 is mainly part of the neighbouring No. 32 but contains a small lobby.

The interior has not been inspected, but documentary evidence records an 18th-century staircase with stick balusters and a turned newel post in the upper floors of No. 34. The cellar of No. 36 has a flagstone floor and a fireplace with an 18th-century wrought-iron crane. The cellar of No. 34 contains a large late-Victorian cast-iron range. Various 19th and 20th-century fireplaces are present throughout.