Post Office, Hall To Rear And Attached Lantern And Bracket

The building is a literary and mechanical institute, incorporating a corn hall, now serving as a post office. It was constructed in 1860 in yellow stock brick with stone and white brick dressings, and has a hipped slate roof. The three-story symmetrical facade has a central bay projecting forward with a pedimental gable. A stone cornice features brick corbels with raised crosses. The central projecting bay’s second floor has four linked windows with a continuous stone sill. Above these is a semicircular-arched recess inscribed 'PUBLIC HALL', containing a coloured marble insert, and a stone plaque inscribed 'ERECTED AD MDCCCLX'. This arch is supported by short attached columns with Ruskinian Gothic/Byzantine capitals, with a frieze of similar ornament in the recessed niche. The ground floor has a pair of wide door openings under semicircular arches, with cast-iron fanlights, one now infilled with matching brick. A lantern sits atop a cast-iron bracket above the centre. The side bays have semicircular-arched sash windows on the second floor, and larger linked, semicircular-arched windows on the first floor, also with attached columns. A stone cornice sits above the ground floor windows. The window openings contain 20th-century timber windows, likely replicas of the originals. A chamfered stone plinth and stacks with related detail feature on the flank walls. The rear elevation includes a large hall structure (formerly the post office sorting office) aligned north/south, with a lower, slate-roofed link block to the main building. The hall is constructed of yellow stock brick with a half-hipped slate roof, and curious extended gablets of white weatherboarding. Each flank of the hall has five large segmental-arched windows within segmental-arched recesses, each containing eight large panes. A 20th-century loading bay with a lean-to roof is on the rear (south) elevation. The interior features arched trusses and iron tie rods.