18, East Street

This is a house, formed by combining parts of two properties, dating back to around 1500, with later alterations in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. The structure is timber-framed and incorporates plasterwork, weatherboarding, and a roof of handmade red tiles. Its layout is complex, comprising several distinct sections. On the right is a two-bay parlour/solar crosswing of a hall house, originally built around 1500, and linked to properties 9/108 and 9/109. A rear extension, with a central stack, was added in the 18th century. To the left of the crosswing is a single bay of a long-jetty house built in 1585 and once connected to numbers 32 and 34 (Blackwater Cottage) via a shared jetty, separated from the subsequent bay by a former roadway. A further wing at the rear, with its own axial stack, dates to the 16th century. A 19th-century single-storey extension adjoins the rear, with an internal stack in the rear-left corner.

The house is two storeys with an attic. The front has three replacement sash windows at ground floor level. The first floor features one early 19th-century sash window with 10 and 10 panes of crown glass, and another with 15 and 15 panes. The attic gable of the crosswing has a sash window of three and six lights, also dating to the 18th or early 19th century. A 20th-century door provides access.

The left bay has a carved bressumer depicting grotesque beasts and scrolls, matching those found at numbers 32 and 34. The left return is weatherboarded on the lower storey only, and features early 19th-century sash windows of 12 and 12 lights, and 4 and 4 lights. The rear elevation, of the right rear wing, features weatherboarding on the lower storey and a mid-19th-century sash window of six lights.

Inside, the crosswing has a jetty, with wide horizontal joists and a former stairwell trap. The original exterior wall studding on the left side has been removed. The first-floor studding remains, featuring a wide arched brace. A 19th-century quarter-turn staircase has turned newels, a moulded handrail and stick balusters. On the first floor is a half-glazed door with nine lights. A later partition with exposed stick wattle and daub fills one upper-storey bay. The roof structure includes an arch-braced collar truss with hollow-chamfered braces, clasped purlins. Block 3 also displays a jetty, chamfered axial beam, chamfered joists with lamb’s tongue stops and straight braces. The roof is supported by clasped purlins. The property was undergoing conversion from a shop to a house at the time of a survey in August 1987.