Numbers 15 Bird Street And 2 Sandford Street

Numbers 15 Bird Street and 2 Sandford Street are commercial premises with a core dating back to around 1500. The building was extended in the 17th century or early 18th century and was refronted around 1800, with some 20th-century alterations. Originally timber-framed, the front is now faced with red brick, while the rear wing is partly rendered. The structure is a corner block with two storeys and an attic, featuring four bays on Bird Street and four bays on the left return facing Sandford Street. The corner block has a recessed shop front from the 1960s.

On the first floor, there are six-pane sash windows with projecting sills under rubbed-brick flat arches, and a cornice beneath the parapet with ashlar copings. The roof is hipped on the left side and includes a tall ridge stack. The left return features an ashlar plinth, a six-panel door on the left with a six-pane overlight and a rubbed-brick flat arch, along with two blind windows on the right that have projecting sills and similar arches. The first floor on this side mirrors the front. The wing facing Sandford Street has been significantly altered, featuring double doors on the left, 20th-century casements, and dentilled eaves, along with a ridge stack. The east gable reveals a partially-exposed principal-rafter truss.

Inside, the building has been remodelled. The attic space parallel to Sandford Street has an altered three-bay roof structure that retains substantial elements from around 1500. It includes a moulded, arch-braced truss with its northwest post extending down to the first floor, showing carpenters' marks, Y-struts above the collar, and a curved wind brace to the northwest purlin. The southeast principal rafter has been cut away. There are two other queen-strut trusses to the southwest, which have grooves or mortices for infill above and below their cambered and chamfered tie beams; the southwest end truss is nearly complete, while the other has lost its apex. Various purlins, rafters, and another wind brace remain. A framed partition on the northwest side features a boarded oak door from the 17th or early 18th century, and the attic floorboards are of a similar date. The main truss likely spanned a tall first-floor chamber, possibly above a shop, with domestic accommodation to the rear.