49 51, High Street

This is a former inn, originally dating from the 16th century, with substantial rebuilding in the 17th century. It was later divided into two houses and is now in commercial use with flats above. The building features timber framing now covered with stucco, and has an old tiled roof with a broad cornice and two box dormers with 20th-century windows.

The south side of the building has a jettied first floor with a canted oriel bay on the left (No. 49) containing 19th-century sash windows, and two flush sash windows on the right (No. 51). The ground floor of No. 49 features a modern shopfront beneath the jetty, flanked by 19th-century fluted pilasters and console brackets. No. 51 has a 1980s shopfront with a tiled stallriser, pilasters, and bold modern timber-framed windows, with a recessed entrance and glazed door. A central carriageway has exposed timber beams above, with twin-leaf timber doors and a wicket. Two-storey rear outshoots, timber-framed and plastered with old tiled roofs, were altered in the 1980s.

No. 49 has five flush-set sash windows on the first floor, one on the ground floor, and a blocked 18th-century doorway with an architrave surround and flat moulded head. No. 51 features a similar doorway and two 19th-century four-light cast-iron casement windows on the ground floor.

Inside No. 49, there is a close string newel staircase with turned balusters. On the ground floor of No. 51, the space has been opened up, though 18th-century fire surrounds remain on the first floor and in the attic. Early 18th-century sash windows with quadrant bars and crown glass are present. Within the rear outshoot, tie beams and heavy rafters are exposed, having been refurbished in the 1980s.

The building, originally The Falcon Inn, became The Bear Inn by the late 15th century. It subsequently became a house, and a maltings were built behind it. This later evolved into the Falcon Ironworks and Foundry, which has now been rebuilt as a printing works (not included in the listing). Small-paned cast-iron casement windows, found on the building and elsewhere in the town, were manufactured on this site.