21, Cricketers Lane

This is an 18th-century butcher’s shop, slaughterhouse, and associated house, located at 21 Cricketers Lane, Herongate. It was converted into a house around 1980. The building is timber-framed with roughcast rendering, weatherboarding, and a roof of handmade red clay tiles. It comprises a main range of three bays facing southwest, with a stack at the right end, and three parallel rear wings forming a rectangular plan.

The front of the building incorporates a section of number 19 Cricketers Lane. The ground floor of the right side is now combined with number 19, while the remainder constitutes one house, number 21 (previously number 23). The left side of the front features an early 19th-century butcher’s shop window with two adjacent top-hung casements, each of eight lights, containing handmade glass. A long top-hung panelled shutter is positioned above the window, and a similar bottom-hung shutter is below. A blocked plain halved door, originally part of number 23, is present, alongside a moulded six-panel door with the top two panels glazed, belonging to number 21. These are sheltered by a tiled canopy with moulded eaves, supported by 20th-century posts. To the right (part of number 19) is a single early 19th-century sash window with eight-over-eight lights. The first floor features two similar sash windows. All the sashes have 20th-century external shutters with club-shaped perforations and imitation hinges. The roof of the main range is hipped at the left. The front elevation is roughcast, while the remainder is weatherboarded. Smaller 20th-century casements have been inserted in the left elevation, between the original studs.

Inside, the left ground-floor room, formerly the shop, has a chamfered transverse beam with convex stops and exposed plain joists of vertical section. A 19th-century hand-driven bone grinder is attached to the front wall. The room behind the shop retains numerous wrought-iron meat-hooks fixed to the joists. The rear left wing was originally built as a single storey and raised to two storeys in the 19th century, each phase exhibiting straight bracing. A straight staircase is located inside the main entrance door, with an early 19th-century semi-elliptical arch featuring unusual carved stops at the top. In the middle rear wing, which formerly served as the slaughterhouse, a heavy iron ring is attached to a strong post around 0.25 metres above the ground; this was used for securing animals to be stunned. The butcher’s shop window is notably well-preserved, a rare feature deserving particular care.