The Briars

The Briars is a house with a complex history, dating to the 15th century, with significant additions and alterations in the 16th and 17th centuries, and a renovation in the 19th century. It is a timber-frame house, with some of the frame exposed, low stucco sills, and plastered brick infill. The front is painted brick on the ground floor and brick infill on the first floor, with steep roofs covered in old red tiles.

The house faces north onto High Street and presents a T-plan, with a two-storey, gabled crosswing of 1499 on the right. This wing has a collar-purlin roof and original cusped oak bargeboards. The western flank reveals knee braces, jetty posts, and a stop-chamfered spine beam with run-out stops, indicating it was originally jettied to the street. This projecting section was altered in the late 16th century when a new, two-storey hall-range replaced the former one, incorporating tension bracing and closer-spaced, thinner studs. At the same time, a two-storey wing was added to the rear, extending the crosswing and creating a cellar below.

The south front features two sash windows with six panes per sash on the first floor and a three-light casement window on the ground floor on the left-hand side. A glazed entrance door and casement windows are on the west side, and a flat-topped dormer is visible on the southwest wing, which features an external south gable chimney enclosed by a single-storey extension of painted brick and tile on the north side.

Inside, the timber frame and floor structures are exposed, including a cross-beam in the northwest wing. A blocked two-light window is visible on the ground floor north side, and large open fireplaces are present around a massive chimney stack at the junction of the hall range and the northwest crosswing. There is a salt cupboard with a diamond-patterned oak door, and a recess with a shouldered head in the back of the west fireplace, formerly a parlour. The hall range features an axial beam with bar-stops on the chamfer, while the southwest wing has an axial beam with a quirked stop. The cut tie-beam in the southwest wing was strengthened by being jointed to oak doorposts, linked by a dovetailed cross member at the head. A collar-purlin and long curved braces from both gables remain in the northwest crosswing, although the tie-beam and crown-post of the central truss were removed to provide headroom. The southwest wing wallplate contains an unusually long face-halved bladed scarf joint. The house has moulded plank doors with old iron fittings.