14 And 16, High Street

Two adjoining houses, dating from the 16th century, with significant alterations in the 17th and 18th centuries. The houses have exposed timber framing on a red brick sill, with red brick infill panels and casing to the ground floor of number 14. They have steep roofs covered in old red tiles. The ground floor of number 16 incorporates clunch and knapped flint chequerwork walling, suggesting an oven was originally located within. Number 16, facing east and north, was likely originally an open hall house which was later floored. The eastern bay is two-storeys high and incorporates tension bracing from the beginning. The wider middle bay formerly served as the hall, with straight bracing to the wallplates, while a narrow cross-passage bay is now occupied by a chimney. Number 14, on the west, has a higher floor level and may have originally been an ancillary building, such as a service room or byre. It features a wide bay and a narrower right-hand bay with straight bracing to the wallplate. Number 16 has two first-floor windows, a ground-floor window on the left-hand side, and a battened door with a small adjacent window, all sheltered by a tiled lean-to hood on the right-hand side. The windows are flush, three-light, leaded casements. A large stack, originally with two or three flues, had an additional flue added in the 18th century on the west side to serve number 14. There is a later external stack on the east gable and a similar internal stack to the west gable of number 14. Number 14 is 1½-storeys high, with two gabled dormers at the eaves, two flush, three-light, leaded casement windows to the ground floor, and a low battened door with steps leading up to the west end of the wider left-hand bay. The east gable of number 16 shows the exposed frame of a clasped-purlin roof, a collar and struts gable truss, and a tension brace from a jowled corner post.