The Stores

The Stores is a house dating from around 1590, which was converted into a shop and house in the 19th century before returning to a house in the 20th century. It features a timber-framed structure with a plastered exterior and a roof made of handmade red clay tiles. The building has four bays facing northeast, with a stack located in the second bay from the left against the rear wall, creating a lobby entrance, and an external stack at the right end.

There is an original lean-to at the back of the left end, which was extended along the rest of the rear wall in the 18th or 19th century. The building is two storeys high and includes three 20th-century casements and a 19th-century shop window that has been converted for domestic use, featuring diamond leading. On the first floor, there are three 20th-century casements. The entrance includes a 19th-century half-glazed door and a plain boarded door.

The shopfront retains a 19th-century three-directional sign that reads 'Lifebuoy Soap - Sunlight Soap - No wear no tear no care', made by Roots and Heinemann of Connersville, Indiana, under a patent from 1888. Architectural features include jowled posts, close studding with curved tension braces set into the inside, and some original wattle and daub. Inside, there is a large wood-burning hearth made of 0.33-meter brickwork facing to the right, with another hearth facing to the left, which has been altered at the rear.

Notches in the brickwork at the front suggest that the original newel stair was located just inside the front door. The rear features diamond mortices for unglazed windows. A continuous chamfered axial beam with lamb's tongue stops spans the two right bays and is joined to a chamfered transverse beam with lamb's tongue stops, showcasing an unusual construction technique. The building has plain joists of vertical section, face-halved and bladed scarfs in both wall plates, and a clasped purlin roof, with original partitions infilled with wattle and daub up to the apex.