62 and 63, High Street

This is a mid-16th century shop and two cottages, originally a single house, located on High Street, Old Leigh. The front is of gault brick dating to 1849, while the rest of the building is timber framed with black weatherboarding. The original plan included a 'baffle entry' layout, featuring two rooms on each floor, a central stack, and a staircase. There was an original attic floor, with extended main posts and plates at the first floor and eaves level. The timber frame is substantial, with some pegging and straight diagonal braces interrupting the studs. The original central stack has back-to-back fireplaces on the ground floor and transitions to a rectangular brick stack on the ridge line. The 19th century front includes three arched-headed window openings on the first floor, with the central one infilled. The ground floor has a central window and 19th or 20th century shop fronts on either side. Behind the stack are a pair of old spiral staircases. The roof features heavy principal rafters and butt purlins, with the rafters morticed into the latter. Fragments of pargeting stickwork are visible on the rear elevation, along with a 17th century window frame, which are both located under the raised roof of a lean-to rear extension. To the east is a single-story 19th century painted brick extension with a hipped roof, added when the building was a public house. The building is an unusually late example of its plan form and carpentry techniques, and features interesting ‘habitable attics’.