Numbers 14 (Ryland House), 16 And 16A

Pair of houses, latterly one, now divided. Located on the south side of Great Hales Street in Market Drayton.

The principal building, No. 14 (Ryland House), dates from the early 18th century with alterations and additions from the mid-to-late 18th century and probably the mid-19th century. It is constructed of red brick with painted sandstone ashlar dressings, rendered side and rear walls lined as ashlar, and covered with a hipped plain tile roof. The building rises to two storeys and an attic over a basement.

The front elevation displays a stone plinth, stone plat band, stone frieze and modillion cornice above the first floor, and a dentil brick eaves cornice to the attic, with the plat band and cornice returned up to the stacks. There are three bays with external brick end stacks (the left-hand one truncated) and a brick ridge stack at the rear. The windows are depressed-arched glazing bar sashes with thick bars, moulded architraves and moulded stone cills. The central first-floor window is particularly fine, featuring a lugged architrave with scrolled shoulders, egg and dart enrichment to the reveals and a raised keystone with scrolled motif. A pair of attic glazing bar sashes have exposed boxes.

The central ground-floor elevation contains a blocked doorway with an inserted small-paned window, and a stone doorcase of considerable sophistication. This comprises a lugged moulded architrave, narrow pilaster strips, console brackets with acanthus ornament, a frieze and segmental pediment.

The right-hand return front shows the plat band and cornice returning to the stack, with a first-floor plat band to the right. This elevation has two glazing-bar sashes, a central first-floor glazing-bar sash and ground-floor glazing-bar sashes (one tripartite), all with exposed boxes.

The rear elevation features a painted red sandstone plinth and plat band with three bays. The windows are glazing bar sashes (ground-floor examples with segmental heads) with exposed boxes. Four stone steps lead up to a boarded door on the right.

The interior of No. 14 (Ryland House) was much altered in the 19th century. The rear entrance hall retains a fireplace dating to circa 1700 with a bolection-moulded stone surround. The right-hand rear room contains circa 1700 bolection-moulded dado panelling, a 19th-century Jacobean-style fireplace and overmantel. A number of bedrooms have fireplaces with late 18th-century cast-iron basket grates. The house retains 18th-century moulded cornices in some rooms, 18th-century doors with six raised and fielded panels and panelled reveals, and many windows with moulded architraves and panelled internal shutters.

No. 14 (Ryland House) appears to have been altered in the 18th century by the addition of an attic storey, evident from straight joints in the right-hand return front suggesting a former two-span roof. The house was probably extended to the rear, as indicated by straight joints and a break in the plat band.

The later wing, No. 16, adjoins to the south-east and dates from the mid-to-late 18th century. It is built of red brick with a plain tile roof and rises to two storeys. It features a plat band and dentil brick eaves cornice. The elevation has two first-floor plate-glass sashes with painted stone cills and wooden lintels, and a central ground-floor plate-glass sash with painted stone cill and lintel with straight joints beneath, probably indicating a former doorway. An early 18th-century door (probably the former front door from No. 14) stands to the right, fitted with six raised and fielded panels and an early 19th-century doorcase consisting of a moulded architrave, panelled pilaster strips, frieze and shaped brackets supporting a flat hood. Three curved sandstone steps lead up to this door, possibly also from No. 14. A 20th-century half-glazed door with rectangular overlight and painted stone lintel stands to the left.

The interior of that part of No. 16 which occupies the front of No. 14 was not inspected but is reported to contain some early 18th-century panelling.

The house was divided and partly incorporated with its neighbour at some point in the 19th century. It was probably then that the central doorway of No. 14 was blocked and the door and steps were reused in No. 16. The interior layout was also altered at this period.