44, High Street

This is a mainly 18th-century house, possibly with medieval origins, that has been altered in the 20th century and is now used as offices. The building is timber-framed and largely clad in red brick in a Flemish bond pattern, with some areas of roughcast plaster. The roof is covered in machine-made red clay tiles.

The building has a rectangular plan and faces northwest. There are internal stacks, one near the left side and another at the rear right. The front elevation features a splayed bay of sash windows. On the ground floor, there is one 18th-century sash window with 6+6 lights, a moulded wooden architrave, and a flat arch of gauged brick. There is also a 19th-century shop window, altered in the 20th century, with a moulded cornice. The first floor has two 18th-century sashes of 6+6 lights with similar architraves and arches, and two blank recesses with matching arches. A half-glazed door with two fielded panels is set within a wooden doorcase featuring fluted pilasters and a dentilled pediment. The building has a dentilled and moulded cornice, a plain parapet, and a hipped gambrel roof with two casements within flat-roofed dormers.

At the left side, the upper storey projects about 0.30 metres beyond the lower storey. The wall above and at the ends of the overhang are plastered, while the remainder is brick. The first floor has two sashes similar to those on the front elevation. There is a similar cornice and parapet, and one 20th-century skylight. On the right elevation, the ground floor has a pair of sashes in one aperture, with a common moulded architrave and a central fluted pilaster. There is also one blocked aperture, both with segmental arches. The first floor has one 18th or 19th-century casement and one blocked aperture, both with segmental arches. The rear elevation has one altered 18th-century sash window (the lower sash now 1+4 lights) on the ground floor, and a 18th-century fluted and pedimented wooden doorcase opposite the front door.

The interior has been largely modernised. The remnants of the rear stack have been removed. The building’s plan, with opposite front and rear doorways to the right of centre, the overhang at the left end, and its location between an ancient church and an old road, suggests a possible medieval origin, significantly altered externally in the 18th century. Any future alterations to the structure should be preceded by a thorough examination of the timber frame.