68 And 74, High Street

Nos. 68 and 74 High Street are two houses that were once four separate dwellings, likely built in the late 16th century and early 17th century, with the house on the right being refronted in the late 18th century. Alterations occurred in the 19th century. The buildings have timber frames that are rendered, with a red brick cased end wall. They feature a steeply pitched tiled roof adorned with decorative fishscale bands and crest tiles.

Both houses are two storeys high, with a cellar in the right house. Originally, they had continuous jettied fronts, but only a small remnant of the jetty remains on the refronted house to the right. No. 74, on the left, consists of two bays. The ground floor has two entrances: to the left is a recessed six-panelled door, and to the right is a two fielded panelled door. It has 19th-century three-light flush moulded frame lattice casements with cornices. The first floor features bull-nosed joists and similar two-light casements. A late 18th-century ridge stack is located to the left of centre, with an external stack on the left end.

No. 68 is three bays wide, with a plinth and a cellar window on the right. The ground floor has steps leading up to an entrance to the right of centre, featuring a recessed six-fielded panelled door with a bracketed raking slate hood, flanked by three-light casements similar to those on No. 74. The left bay has a second entrance with a six-panelled door, a similar casement, and a section of original jetty that is higher than that on No. 74. The first floor has similar two-light casements. There is a cross axial stack to the left of centre, and the right gable end is made of early 19th-century red brick, with a plinth, kneelers to the parapet, and an extruded stack behind the ridge with offsets, featuring earlier brick at the base. A catslide roof covers a shallow weatherboarded lean-to outshut at the rear of No. 68, and there is a later short brick cased gabled wing at the rear of No. 74.

Inside No. 68, there are stop-chamfered bearers, tension braces, jowled posts, cambered tie beams, and a clasped purlin roof. It should be noted that what is described as the right-hand bay of No. 68 is actually part of No. 1 Church Lane.