The Sandbrook Vaults

The Sandbrook Vaults is a timber-framed house, now an inn, dating to 1653. It is located on the north-west side of Shropshire Street, Market Drayton, Shropshire. The building was formerly known as Sandbrook’s Vaults.

The house has a plastered infill on a rendered plinth and a plain tile roof. The ground floor framing features closely-spaced studs with a middle rail. The first floor has diagonal struts forming chevron patterns, while the attic has a tier of quatrefoil panels beneath the eaves. The first floor and attic have jetted construction, supported by carved brackets. The brackets feature carved dragons beneath the first-floor bressumer and a vine trail beneath the attic bressumer, with ovolo moulding to the lower edge of each. The building has three framed bays.

The building is two storeys and has an attic, with a pair of timber-framed gabled dormers to the right, which contain 20th-century three-light metal casements and rendered gables. An integral brick stack is located at the front to the right. There are three first-floor windows: a pair of 20th-century three-light metal casements to the right, and a 19th-century three-light window with small panes to the left. The ground floor has a pair of 20th-century three-light small-paned wooden casements and a nail-studded boarded door with decorative wrought-iron strap hinges, positioned slightly off-centre to the right. A passageway to the left has a nail-studded boarded door with decorative wrought-iron strap hinges and ovolo-moulded reveals. An inscribed date "M 16 R E 53" appears beneath the first-floor bressumer to the left.

Ground floor windows replace earlier 17th-century oriels, evidenced by square and diamond mortices on the underside of the first-floor bressumer and sections of bressumer without the lower moulding. The centre section of the attic bressumer has been replaced. The passageway to the left reveals a square-panelled framed side wall, brick nogging, and a sandstone plinth. A chamfered corner post is present at the rear.

The interior features two pairs of ovolo-moulded spine beams with run-out stops and corner fireplaces in the right-hand room. Only the ground floor was inspected. The Sandbrook Vaults forms an impressive range with No. 2 Shropshire Street and Nos. 1 and 3, Cheshire Street.