3 and 4, The Square

3 and 4 The Square is a late 16th-century building that has undergone exterior changes in the late 17th or early 18th century. It features 18th-century windows and a porch, along with 19th-century shop fronts. The structure is timber-framed and plastered, topped with a hipped old red tile roof. It stands two storeys high, with a gabled south end and lower eaves at the rear over a former inn gallery. The main range faces east towards The Square, and a dragon beam at the corner suggests it may have jutted out over both streets. A two-storey wing on Bell Street has a higher ground floor and may be a later addition. Inside, there is a deep chamfered moulded axial beam in No 52 with two bar stops, indicating the high quality of the main range. The building has a large internal chimney stack with an attached shaft. The long east front features pargetting with raised panels above a low black plinth. There are eight flush box sash windows arranged in a pattern of six and two, each with 6/6 panes. The projecting triangular pedimented Doric porch has two freestanding columns on low square bases with chamfered tops. The 19th-century shop front includes a plinth as a stallriser and a continuous entablature that extends into Bell Street. The Royal Commission on Historical Monuments suggests that a gallery was added at the rear in the later 17th century, which is different from the usual inn gallery formed within the building's framework. This important 16th-century building is located in the town center, now disguised in an 18th-century style.