No. 47, FORE HILL

No. 47 Fore Hill is a house dating from the late 13th century or early 14th century, with later alterations, including remodeling in the early to mid-19th century. It features a timber frame that has been partly rebuilt and refaced in the 19th century. The exterior is constructed of Flemish bond gault brick, with earlier brick that is partly rendered on the southeast end and 20th-century brick on the northwest end. The roof is covered with plain tiles and has gable ends with brick modillion eaves, along with a slate roof outshut at the rear. A brick gable end stack is present.

The house consists of two bays of a medieval open hall that have been remodeled with inserted floors at rail and tie beam levels, along with a rear outshut. It is two storeys high with an attic and has an asymmetrical two-window range on the southwest front. The 19th-century sash windows include 12-pane windows on the first floor and plate glass on the ground floor. The doorway on the right has a flush panel door and a rectangular overlight with margin panes. Ground floor openings feature flat brick arches, and there is one flat roof dormer with a casement. At the rear, the main roof extends over a large outshut that includes a sash window.

Inside, the ground and first floors have 19th-century joinery, but there is a roughly chamfered axial beam, partly boxed, supporting the first floor. Two bays of a smoke-blackened crown-post roof remain, featuring a tall octagonal crown-post with a mutilated moulded cap and base, and curved braces to the collar and crown purlin, although one collar brace is missing. The crown-purlin has three mortices for braces to the rebuilt southeast gable and the central stud of the partition on the northwest end. Another brace on the opposite side of the partition has been truncated, and at the apex of the partition, there is a plastered panel that appears to be smoke-blackened on the right-hand inner side only. Most of the common rafters and collars are intact, and there are mortices for braces below the central and left tie-beam.