5, Dodington

House, probably mid-to-late 16th century with early 17th-century additions, remodelled in the early 18th century. Timber framed on brick plinth with painted brick nogging, rendered to front. Slate roofs. The framing consists of rectangular panels, 3 and 4 from sole plate to wall plate. A 17th-century stable adjoins with square panels, 2 from sole plate to wall plate. The front wall probably has closely-spaced studs. The building is L-shaped, comprising 3 framed bays with a rear wing of 3 framed bays (one short and 2 long), probably formerly an open hall, with a further one-bay addition at the end. It is 2 storeys over basement.

The exterior features a brick plinth, brick ridge stacks off-centre to left and right, and a brick ridge stack to the rear wing. Irregularly-placed wooden cross windows with wooden cills and painted imitation lintels are distributed across the elevation: 4 to the first floor and 3 to the ground floor. To the right is a complete early 19th-century former shop-front with Tuscan pilasters, frieze and moulded cornice, a plate-glass window to the right and a reset early 18th-century oak door to the left with 6 raised and fielded panels and rectangular overlight. The side passage to the left has a 16th-century nail-studded boarded door with wrought-iron strap hinges to the rear.

The rear elevation has wooden cross windows. A glazed 18th-century flush stair tower is positioned off-centre to the right, with a first-floor cross window and hipped eaves dormer containing a 2-light wooden casement. A central 16th-century panelled oak door with fluted frieze and linenfold panel in the centre at the top is located here. The rear wing features a row of first-floor 2-light wooden casements beneath the eaves and a row of ground-floor slatted windows, probably dating from when the ground floor was used as a smithy. Exposed beam ends of the first floor are visible above the girding beam. A 17th-century former stable adjoins to the left with a stable door to the right.

The interior retains many fixtures and fittings from the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. Some exposed framing is visible in walls, including a tension brace in the ground-floor room. The left-hand ground-floor room has an old fireplace with a chamfered wooden lintel. An early 18th-century dog-leg staircase at the rear rises 2 floors with winders, open string with cut brackets, column-on-vase balusters (2 per tread), moulded ramped handrail with curved knees, and columnar newel posts. Early 18th-century doors to the first floor have 2 raised and fielded panels. The attic has old boarded doors and evidence of 3 former dormers (now removed). Collar and tie-beam end trusses have queen struts. The side passage to the left features an open 2-bay ground-floor arcade comprising chamfered posts (the centre one on a pad-stone), chamfered wall plate and chamfered arched bracing. The rear wing has collar and cambered tie-beam trusses with queen struts. Tie beams contain rows of small rectangular mortices at their base (probably for a former ceiling) and short chamfered arched braces with notched lap joints. Evidence of former wind braces is visible in mortices in the purlins. A first floor was probably inserted (as evidenced by externally exposed beam ends) with chamfered beams. A large ground-floor fireplace to the rear features a moulded wooden lintel and stepped brick firehood.

The front range probably formerly consisted of a first-floor solar over a ground floor partly or wholly occupied by a shop or other business premises. The rear range was probably formerly an open hall with a first floor inserted sometime in the 17th century. The ground floor of the rear range was latterly used as a smithy, probably from the 19th century onwards. The arcaded side passage is unusual and probably never formed part of the internal layout of the front range, instead serving as a link from the street to the rear yard. It would initially have been open to the side but was blocked by the building of No. 7 Dodington to the side, sometime in the 17th century.