59, High Street

No 59 High Street is a house dating from around 1700, with a possibly earlier rear wing. It is constructed of red brick and features old red tiled roofs, while the rear wing is timber-framed and plastered. The building has an L-shaped layout with a symmetrical street-facing range that includes internal gable chimneys and one room on each side of a central stair hall. It stands two storeys high, with a cellar and attics, and the two-storey rear wing has a large gable chimney and an ogee-roofed conservatory on the east side.

The front façade has five windows facing west, with four steps leading up to the door. It features a plinth, a floor band, a moulded brick cornice painted white, and a parapet with stone coping that conceals three hipped dormers. The windows have fine gauged segmental brick arches and are slightly recessed flush box sash windows with segmental heads, featuring 19th-century sashes with 4/4 panes. The rear wing retains thick ovolo glazing bars. The two cellar windows have heavy central mullioned flush frames.

The central entrance has an eight-panelled door with a rectangular fanlight, set within a moulded doorcase that includes fluted Tuscan pilasters and a flat hood supported by carved scroll brackets, with a cornice that breaks forward over each bracket. Inside, the house boasts a good original interior, including fielded panelling on the ground floor (plaster in the left-hand room), a cut string stair with carved stair ends, an egg-and-dart cornice at the entrance, and two-panel fielded doors with H-hinges on both the ground and first floors. There is also a moulded plank door in the rear attic and a large open fireplace with an arched lintel in the rear wing. Notably, a wine bottle is set into the end of the ridge of each dormer. The front wall has been reddened and tuck-pointed. This impressive Queen Anne house overlooks the market place of the former borough.