20, West Street

No. 20 West Street is a house dating from the early 17th century, with alterations made in the 18th and 20th centuries. It features a timber frame that is plastered and weatherboarded, showcasing exposed imitation framing and brick nogging at the front. The house has three bays facing south, with a central stack that creates a lobby entrance.

To the rear, there is an original or later 17th-century wing on the right side, which is angled slightly to the left, and an adjacent 18th-century wing on the left, resulting in an almost square plan. The building has two storeys and attics. On the ground floor, there are two 20th-century square oriel windows with rectangular leading, while the first floor has three 20th-century casement windows with similar leading. The entrance features a 20th-century door.

The house has a full-length short jetty with moulded ends of beams, imitation studding, and 20th-century carved brackets below. There is a modern plaster crest and the date 1560 above the entrance. The eaves are adorned with 18th-century coving. The right return and rear elevation are weatherboarded.

On the upper floor of the rear elevation, there is a 17th-century two-light window with an ovolo-moulded mullion and surround, featuring a wrought iron casement with modern glass, a fixed light with diamond leading, and handmade glass. The interior includes chamfered transverse and axial beams with carved stops of unusual geometric design, and plain joists of vertical section. The left ground-floor hearth is blocked, while the right hearth has ovolo-moulded jambs and a depressed arch, which has been repaired and re-pointed with cement mortar.

Above the first floor, the soffit of the left axial beam has been hacked away, while the right axial beam is chamfered with stops similar to those below. The posts are unjowled, and there is a face-halved and bladed scarf in the rear wall plate. A borrowed light between the main range and the rear left wing consists of eight panes, some made of handmade glass. The original floorboards are present in this wing. The roof features clasped purlins without wind-bracing.