52 And 54, Church Street

House, now divided into 2 houses. Built in 1565 with substantial alterations in the late 19th century. Timber-framed, plastered with some exposed framing, fronted with a late 19th-century facade of red and gault brick in Flemish bond, roofed with handmade red plain tiles. The building forms a T-plan with a main range facing north-west, containing 2 axial stacks, and a rear wing with one internal stack. The structure is 2 storeys high.

The front elevation displays a 3-window range with late 19th-century sashes fitted with marginal lights beneath segmental arches of gault brick. No. 52 has a 19th-century 3-panel door and No. 54 has a 20th-century 6-panel door, both with plain overlights and similar gault brick arches. The facade is decorated with 7 flush bands and diaper and cross patterns in gault bricks, with a dentilled eaves cornice of gault bricks; the remainder is red brick. The late 19th-century carved wooden fascia reproduces 16th-century style work featuring grotesque heads, birds and scrolls, with the initials TC (identified as Thomas Clerke, recorded in 1567) and "ANO DNI 1565", likely an accurate copy of a decayed original.

The right elevation of the rear wing shows a partly underbuilt jetty with roll-moulded bressumer and evidence of a former oriel above, together with 2 original flank windows. The rear elevation contains 2 early 19th-century sashes of 12 lights on the first floor. The main range features an underbuilt jetty with roll-moulded transverse and axial beams with lamb's tongue stops and joists plastered to the soffits, with exposed studding visible.

The interior retains exceptional completeness. At the left end of No. 52 is a blocked doorway with carved and moulded Tudor doorhead leading to what was formerly the parlour from an originally storeyed hall; above it is a similar doorway into the former solar with hollow-chamfered Tudor head. Behind this is a similar doorway into the rear wing. At the right end is a wide wood-burning hearth with a mantel beam of double-ogee moulding turning down at the ends, possibly reused from an earlier timber-framed chimney, with a blocked fireplace on the first floor having an apparent brick depressed arch dated around 1600. In front of this is an original closet, complete with plain Tudor head and a rare door of 4 moulded wedge-shaped planks on original strap hinges, requiring special care. The posts are jowled. The original ceiling displays 2 roll-moulded bridging beams in each bay with plain joists of vertical section. The first floor contains re-sited 16th-century linenfold oak panelling and plain panelling of around 1600. Original floorboards survive. Storey heights measure approximately 3 metres on the ground floor and 2.50 metres on the first floor. The roof is an original clasped purlin roof with arched wind-bracing. At the right end, studding appears only above the collar, as the house abutted an earlier building to the right and required no studding except where the upper gables are out of alignment. The left stack is 19th-century work.

Apart from the altered front elevation, the house retains an exceptionally complete structure, all of one build. The combination of late medieval features (roll mouldings and Tudor doorheads) and Renaissance lamb's tongue stops confirms the carved date on the fascia. At the right end, part of the ground floor is combined with No. 1 Albert Place.