21 And 23, High Street

21 and 23 High Street are two houses that have been converted into shops and offices. They date from the mid-18th century to early 19th century and include a medieval cellar that is partly from the 13th century. The buildings are constructed of red brick in Flemish bond and feature a Welsh-slate roof with deep rendered eaves cornice and three brick stacks located at the ends and ridge.

The exterior consists of three storeys and a cellar, with a three-window range. The central bay projects forward and contains horned 2/2 plate glass sashes, with smaller and boxed windows on the second floor. All windows have painted channelled voussoirs and keystones, with sill-bands that are vestigial on the ground floor. The ground floor features a canted bay window on the right with 20th-century plate-glazing, and a shallow bay window on the left with plate-glazing, decorative mullions, arched heads, a deep up-swept dentilled cornice, and a rebuilt brick plinth with a cellar grille. In the centre, there are paired round-arched doorways framed by a Classical architrave with three three-quarter Doric columns on deep plinths, supporting a corniced entablature with a triglyph and paterae frieze, plain fanlights, and six-panel doors with nosed stone steps. A deep moulded plinth is also present. The left return, visible in the side passage, shows some light-scantling timber-framing. The rear of the building has a brick wing that forms a courtyard with No. 19.

Inside, below both properties, there is an ashlar tunnel-vaulted basement. In the section beneath No. 21, there are two arches, a 13th-century trefoil-headed piscina with a deeply-moulded surround in the south wall, and in the central bay, three disused steps leading down from street level with grooves in the stone. There is also a four-centred archway leading to a former newel stair.