43, Friar Street

No. 43 Friar Street is a former house, now a shop, dated 1642 on a plaque. It features a stuccoed front facade and underwent re-roofing around 1820-1830. Originally built for Richard Hodgkins, a tallow chandler, the building has a timber frame with painted stucco at the front and brick at the rear, topped with a slate roof. It stands two and a half storeys high with a cellar and has two bays deep. The first floor jetties out, supported by bressumer beams that have ovolo, hollow, and ovolo moulding, with the upper beam resting on corbels. The upper storey displays small box frames, and a bulge on the right side at the first floor indicates the position of a main post.

The first floor features a long, 8-light mullion and transom window with chamfered elements and a sill supported by corbels. The date plaque on the front is adorned with carved dragons. The entrance consists of a plank door on the left, while the shop front includes two-pane windows set on plinths, angled towards a central glazed shop entrance.

Inside, the ground floor has a wall on the left with exposed square panels of timber framing, and on the right, an exposed panel of wattle and daub, along with a chamfered spine beam and cross beam. The floorboards are wide. The first floor retains exposed square panels of timber framing, with a cross beam on a jowled post at the rear and a fireplace on the right featuring a chamfered bressumer. There are also a two-fielded-panel door and a plank door leading to the attic.

Historically, the inventory of Richard Hodgkins lists several rooms, including the 'forestreete chamber, studdy, chamber over the kitchen, toploft, kitchen, buttery, sellar, washhouse, workhouse,' valued at £135.