27, West Street

27 West Street is a house dating from the 17th century, which was altered and extended around 1800. It features a timber-framed structure with a plastered front right flank wall and a rear lean-to made of brown brick in Flemish bond, with some sections rendered and colourwashed. The roof is Welsh slated with broad eaves and brown brick chimneystacks on both the left and right sides, along with some clay ports.

The house has three storeys, although it was originally two storeys. It has a central entrance from the street leading into two rooms. Around 1800, a hall was incorporated into the left-hand (east) sitting room, and a new entrance hall was added to the rear lean-to, creating a double-depth plan. The first floor features three flush-set 12-pane sash windows with architrave surrounds, while the second floor has two squat 6-pane sashes. On the ground floor, there are three flush-set 12-pane sashes with shallow moulded cornices below a continuous band at the first-floor level.

Inside, the sitting room includes a mid-19th century white marble fireplace with a cast-iron hob grate, and some of the sash windows feature crown glass. There are four panelled oak doors leading to the dining and sitting rooms. The rear staircase has stick balusters and a moulded handrail around the landing. The first floor showcases chamfered and tongue-and-groove longitudinal beams in the front bedrooms. The central staircase to the second floor has a column on vase balusters, square newels, and moulded handrails. An exposed horizontal plate runs around the perimeter wall, 600mm above the floor level. The cellar beneath the front range is brick-walled and brick-floored, with basement windows at the front and recessed arched shelving below the chimneystack on the east wall.

This house was the home of William Archer (1754-1833), a merchant, miller, entrepreneur, and manufacturer of linseed oil.