95-103, WEST STREET

This is a late 16th-century house, subsequently altered in the 19th and 20th centuries, and now divided into three separate houses. It is timber-framed with plastered walls and a roof of handmade red plain tiles. The building originally had four bays facing north, with a central chimney stack. A catslide extension runs along the rear of the building. There are 20th-century extensions to the rear of numbers 97 and 99, and a two-storey lean-to extension with a felt roof to the rear of number 103. A 20th-century extension to the left of number 97 incorporates a carport with rooms above. The house has two storeys and attics. The front has a four-window arrangement featuring early 19th-century sash windows with 16 lights, some with crown glass; there are also some 20th-century replica windows in the left extension. There is a 19th-century casement window in a gabled dormer in number 99, and another in number 103. Four-panel doors, with lower panels that are flush, are grouped in pairs, and sheltered by flat canopies supported on profiled brackets. Numbers 101 and 103 are combined, and the door to number 103 is now blocked. In the left gable, above the carport extension, the studding and collar of the clasped purlin roof are exposed, and some studding is visible within the carport, alongside 20th-century brick infill. There are 20th-century casement windows to the rear, including some within flat-roofed dormers on the first floor and in the attic. The building features jowled posts. Diamond mortices, indicating the former presence of unglazed windows, are visible in the rear girts and wallplates, now concealed by the catslide extension. There is no evidence of unglazed windows on the front, suggesting it may have been built between 1575 and 1590 when glazing was becoming common. The structure incorporates near-straight tension braces trenched inside studs. The house has unchamfered axial beams and plain, square-section joists on the ground floor. Above the first floor, there are chamfered axial beams, that are unstopped, with plain, vertical-section joists. The interior includes 20th-century hearths. Blocked original doorways, with straight heads, are located between bays on both floors. An unusual stepped and tenoned scarf is found in the front wallplate of number 99. The roof is a clasped purlin construction with arched wind-braces.