17 And 18, High Street

This is a town house, now used as a shop and restaurant, dating back to around 1600 and restored in 1920. It is timber-framed with plaster infill, and has a tile roof with brick stacks at the rear. The building is three storeys high with an attic, and has a symmetrical three-window facade. The first floor is jettied, and there are three 20th-century gables featuring decorative bargeboards with finials. A 20th-century shop front occupies the ground floor. The upper floors have 20th-century wooden-mullioned windows; the first floor has four-light transomed oriels, the second floor has similar projecting windows with moulded detailing, and the attic has small, two-light windows—all with leaded glazing. Decorative 20th-century lead rainwater heads and downspouts are present. The timber framing has close-studded construction with mid rails. At the rear are two gabled brick wings, one with a stack featuring two cruciform shafts. A lower timber-framed wing mirrors the cross-wing design, with a smaller, timber-framed addition and an altered roof. A 20th-century single-storey infill section is also present. The interior of the building contains broadly chamfered beams to the rear of the ground floor, late 16th-century panelling (some re-set) with fluted friezes—one frieze features a pattern of half-circles—and two fireplaces. A partition wall has had its infill removed. The building was recorded as newly built in 1614, and may incorporate an earlier structure.