98, High Street

This is an early 18th-century house, extended in the 19th and 20th centuries, and now used as offices. The original structure is timber-framed, with a facade of blue bricks in a header bond and red brick dressings. The remainder of the building is plastered, and the roof is covered in handmade red clay tiles. It has a T-shaped plan facing southeast, with a central stack. A single-storey lean-to extension is located in the rear left angle. Later additions, dating to the late 19th century, extend backwards from the rear right angle, consisting of two-storey and one-storey sections built of red brick in a Flemish bond, with hipped roofs of machine-made red clay tiles. A 20th-century single-storey extension with a flat roof completes the rear arrangement.

The asymmetrical front elevation has a ground floor with three altered sash windows of 6+6 lights, each with a flat arch of gauged red brick with elaborately profiled soffits and keys. The first floor has four sash windows of similar design. Two casement windows are set within gabled dormers. The front door is of eight fielded panels, set within an elaborate wooden doorcase featuring fluted pilasters, a moulded frieze that rises to a point, and a moulded pediment. It is approached by two stone steps, with a cast iron bootscraper incorporated into the upper step. The brickwork at the base of the ground-floor windows is red and in Flemish bond, with a weathered brick plinth and a rendered-cement plinth below. A raised band of rubbed red brick runs above the ground-floor window arches, continuing the projection of the keys. A dentilled and moulded eaves cornice runs around the building, meeting the roof of the adjacent house on the right return. The roof is fully hipped, and the dormers have moulded eaves cornices and pediments.

The profile of the arches over the ground-floor windows is similar to that found at Ray Place Farmhouse in Blackmore, which bears a dated inscription of 1721, suggesting a similar construction date for this building and the possible involvement of the same mason. A sash window of 8+8 lights with some crown glass is located on the first floor of the original rear wing.

Inside, a corner cupboard in the right front ground-floor room has a full-height mahogany door of six fielded panels, with later additions of reeded and jewel-moulded pilasters. An archway with a semi-elliptical head leads from this room to the original staircase, which has three straight flights to each storey, with a moulded handrail, turned balusters, and an open well (later filled in on the ground floor). Two fireplaces are present on the first floor; the right-hand fireplace contains a cast-iron ducknest grate dating to around 1800, while the left-hand fireplace is obscured by furniture and thought to be blocked. The original hardwood roof structure is partially exposed.