3 High Street Passage

3 High Street Passage is a late 15th or early 16th-century former shop and open hall house that has been substantially altered and remodelled over the centuries. The building was ceiled in the late 16th or early 17th century when a stack was inserted, and underwent further remodelling in the 17th and early 18th centuries, the mid 19th century, and the late 20th century. It now serves as a holistic therapy practice.

The building is constructed of timber-frame encased in brick, with some stone elements, a brick plinth, and a mono-pitched roof covered with late 20th-century slate. It is two storeys tall with a rectangular plan.

On the ground floor of the east side, there is a late 19th-century tripartite plate-glass shop window on the left and a 20th-century double doorway with two half-glazed entrance doors on the right. Above the doorway on the first floor is a two-light casement window with square-paned glazing. The south front similarly has a late 19th-century tripartite shop window on the right, flanked on the left by two small single-light casements, with the left casement set within the timber surround of a blocked late 15th or early 16th-century doorway. The first floor is jettied with a curved jetty bracket rising from a concealed central wall post to an exposed joist. A small section of bressumer is exposed with moulded horizontal bands. The south-east corner post has a curved upper section projecting to support a dragon beam. The area beneath the jetty has been underbuilt in brick with a large corbelled bracket supporting the upper storey. The first floor has a late 19th-century two-light casement with square-paned glazing flanked by two 20th-century unframed four-light mullioned windows formed by main wall studs. An attic casement with square-paned glazing sits above.

Internally, the ground floor contains a large unchamfered cross beam running east to west, supported on a late 20th-century centre post. Residual mortises on its underside mark where a partition once divided the south-side shop from the north-side hall. A chamfered spine beam with scroll stops runs north to south from the central post, dividing the original shop into two equal bays. A dragon beam projects from the central post to the south-east corner with similar detailing. Original joists are concealed by later boarding, but their positions are indicated by pegs in the beams. The south-east corner post shows residual mortises. An adjacent stud has corresponding mortises, and smaller mortises on the underside of the jetty plate indicate the original four-light shop window position before 19th-century enlargement. Close studding survives in the south wall, with further residual mortises showing where studding was removed. Running north to south from the central post is a late 16th or early 17th-century chamfered spine beam with double-ogee moulding and scroll stops. A brick fireplace with timber bressummer was inserted at the same time against the west elevation in the north corner of the former hall. A blocked timber-framed doorway to the former external west wall lies nearby. A late 20th-century staircase runs parallel to the north wall.

The first floor has two bays defined by jowled posts supporting three tie beams, the only surviving components of the original trusses. The south wall is close-studded, largely concealed by late 20th-century plasterboard but visible where infill was removed to create two windows. A centrally-placed original window opening features a large rebate on the lower edge of the adjacent tie beam to accommodate a pair of shutters. Part of the eastern brace survives internally; evidence for the western brace is concealed or lost. The east and west elevations retain their wall plates with peg holes indicating close studding. The north elevation retains its north-west corner post, with a cambered tie beam showing no evidence of close studding pegging but a centrally-placed double-pegged stud. Further pegs exist west of this, though any corresponding timbers are removed or concealed. Additional features are obscured by plasterwork build-up.

The attic is covered by a 19th-century mono-pitch roof supported by salvaged timbers including a substantial longitudinal timber with residual mortises, possibly a reused wall plate. The ridge piece is 19th-century, and common rafters and joists are concealed by timber boarding.