8 and 9 The Square

Nos. 8 and 9 The Square are a pair of shops and offices that were formerly dwellings, dated 1730, but they include remnants of an earlier building. The structure is made of brick and has a plain tiled roof.

The building has three storeys and features a five-window range. There is an inserted shop front in a traditional style, complete with console brackets supporting the fascia. Above the shop front, there are elongated flush-framed twelve-pane sash windows with cambered heads and keystones. The windows have moulded sills, and the second floor features aprons. An ornate rainwater head displays a monogram and the date. The keystones of the second-floor windows reach up to a moulded cornice, and above each window is a raised panel in the high parapet, which also has a moulded cornice. At the rear, there is a crow-stepped gable.

Inside, the first floor contains a series of panelled rooms, with the two front rooms dating from the early 18th century. These rooms feature dado and high panels, and fluted pilasters above the fireplace, with one room painted and the other in oak. The rear room has 16th-century panelling arranged in small squares and a frieze that includes the arms of Henry VIII, along with mythical beasts and grotesques. There is an early 18th-century staircase with three turned balusters on each moulded tread. The cellars are said to incorporate remains of a 13th-century stone building.