70 and 71, Load Street

This is a mid-18th century house, later used as a shop and offices, with alterations made in the mid-19th century and restoration in 1969. The building is constructed of brick with a hipped tile roof and gable-end stacks. It is three storeys high, featuring a modillioned stone cornice, an advanced quoined and pedimented central bay, and a facade with a 1+2+1 window arrangement. The outer windows are Venetian, each with a Gothick glazed sash at the centre flanked by 8-pane sashes beneath heads with rusticated voussoirs. The central two windows are boxed glazing bar sashes with stepped voussoirs to flat-arched heads. The second floor mirrors the first, with 9-pane sashes to the centre, and similarly reduced Venetian windows. The ground floor has a half-glazed door with a stepped voussoir to a flat-arched head, to the left of a boxed glazing bar sash. The central bay features a moulded wooden cornice above two entrances – one slightly off-centre to the left with flanking 4-pane sashes and a 2-pane overlight, and another to the right with a moulded architrave, 3-pane overlight and a half-glazed door. The right corner has an entrance with a moulded architrave, 3-pane overlight and a half-glazed door. To the right of the entrance is a boxed glazing bar sash. Both ground floor doors have stepped voussoirs to flat arches.