Former Post Office and attached railings and gate

This is a house, later used as a post office, dating from around 1700, built in an Early Georgian style. It is located on Greengate Street in Stafford, with attached railings and a gate.

The building is constructed of brick with ashlar stone dressings, and has a hipped tile roof with brick return stacks. The plan is H-shaped.

The two-storey facade has a symmetrical arrangement of five windows, with wings extending to the sides. A moulded ashlar plinth runs along the base, with a cornice above the ground floor and a top entablature. The wings feature ashlar Corinthian pilasters. The main entrance is framed by an architrave with a pulvinated frieze; a later cartouche containing a royal monogram from around 1914 sits within a broken segmental pediment above the doorway. The entrance itself has paired, three-panel doors. The windows on the front have narrow sills and rubbed brick flat arches, with fluted keys on the ground floor and fielded panels on the first floor, covering 6/9-pane sashes. Similar windows are found on the inner returns. The wings have windows with architraves, keys, and 8/12-pane sashes. The side returns are simpler, featuring brick platt bands. A late 20th-century entrance and a brick post box have been added to the left return, alongside windows similar to those on the front.

Inside, the interior has early 18th-century panelling with tall panels above a dado rail, and a bolection-moulded fireplace.

The front railings are attached to the building with an ashlar base, featuring iron railings with decorative finials and scrolled wrought-iron panels. Similar panels flank paired gates with matching details and a scrolled overthrow bearing a monogram. Railings to the left return are attached to a brick post box and extend approximately 11.5 metres, although they are now in a different location.

The house was the home of William Chetwynd (1684-1770), a Member of Parliament and Mayor of Stafford, who purportedly entertained the Duke of Cumberland in 1746. It was also home to William Horton (1750-1832), who established Stafford’s first boot and shoe factory. Horton was a friend of the playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751-1816), who frequently stayed at the house and is believed to have written 'School for Scandal' there. During an election dinner, Sheridan famously proposed a toast wishing for Stafford’s trade to be “trod underfoot by all the world.”