4, Old Cross

No. 4 Old Cross is a house that has been converted into a shop with a residence above. It dates from the 16th century but was rebuilt in the 19th century and again in the mid-1920s. The building features a timber-framed structure with a brick and stucco exterior and a Welsh slate roof that has a hipped end, set above brick dentil eaves.

The exterior is three storeys high. The first and second floors have small paned sash windows with glazing bars, with two windows (one blank) facing Old Cross, one on the diagonal, and two on the return elevation to Mill Bridge. The ground floor has a 1920s shopfront that includes plate glass display windows, a stuccoed stallriser, and slim panelled pilasters with canted console blocks flanking the fascia. Above the glazed shop door, which is set in a splayed recess on the right side of the Old Cross elevation, there are continuous blind boxes.

Inside, the ground floor features elaborately roll moulded exposed beams from the late 16th century, with cut ends and cast-iron column supports located behind the shopfront. There is also a fireplace arch with a heavy timber bressumer on the party wall with No. 6. No timber of this age and quality is visible on the first or second floors. The property underwent significant reconstruction in the mid to late 19th century and was radically altered again when the Mill Bridge was realigned in 1926-1927.