Virgina House And The Stores

Virginia House and The Stores is a timber-framed house, now divided into a shop and private residence, dating to approximately 1570. It has been altered in the 18th century and around 1900. The house is timber-framed with plaster infill, and has a roof of handmade red clay tiles. The main range faces approximately southeast, with a rear wing projecting from the left end. A 17th-century external stack stands at the right end of the main range, and another, originally external stack, is now enclosed by an 18th-century extension to the rear. Further extensions were added in the 19th century (of red brick with a slate roof) and the 20th century. The left bay of the main range, along with the extensions to front and back, now form The Stores, while the remainder is Virginia House. The building has two storeys and a cellar.

The Stores features a 19th-century shopfront with a central half-glazed door, an early 19th-century sash window with six lights above, and a hipped roof. The left return has plain bargeboards. Virginia House boasts two two-storey splayed bays with sash windows of 2-4-2 lights, dating to around 1900, and a central 6-panel door with glazed upper panels.

The original building displays jowled posts, close studding with curved braces trenched to the inside, stop-chamfered spine beams with run-out stops, chamfered joists of horizontal section with lamb's tongue stops in the two middle bays (elsewhere plain), and a crownpost roof with axial bracing. A large wood-burning hearth is on the ground floor, featuring a rebuilt depressed arch, with a smaller hearth above retaining its original depressed arch, previously stripped of plaster. The first floor of The Stores contains a wood-burning hearth with a band of ornamental plaster on the mantel, showcasing a design of shells, foliage, diamonds, flowers, and interlacing patterns. On the first floor of Virginia House, an unglazed window survives with two of three diamond mullions, blocked by the 17th-century external stack, and a complete range of oak-panelled cupboards with eight cockshead hinges, dating to around 1600, an uncommon feature. The front of Virginia House retains its original frieze windows with moulded mullions and diamond saddle bars on both floors. The combination of early glazed windows at the front, an unglazed window on the side, lamb's tongue stops, and the crownpost roof allows for precise dating of the original building to around 1570.