20 Market Place

20 Market Place

This is a former house built between around 1740 and 1750, which incorporates a mid- to late-17th-century crosswing at its rear. The building was adapted for use as a bank in the early 19th century and later served as a school headmaster's house in the early 20th century.

The building is constructed of red brick and flint with a pantile roof, and is roughly L-shaped in plan, facing north-east towards Market Place.

The front elevation to Market Place is two-and-a-half storeys high with five symmetrical bays. The pitched roof is covered in pantile with three attic dormers on its east slope and internal chimneystacks set into the north and south gables. The walls are built in red brick laid in Flemish bond, rusticated on the ground floor with a plat band above, and a plain low parapet wall over the first floor. Red-brick pilasters run up the north and south ends of the front elevation to both ground and first floors; those on the ground floor are rusticated. The central doorcase is rusticated and stuccoed, featuring multiple keystones and containing double-leaf half-glazed doors. The ground and first floors have six-over-six sash windows without horns, set under gauged skewback arches; those to the left of the door lack lower sash glazing bars. Behind the parapet, the outer dormers have flat roofs while the central dormer has a gabled roof, each containing four-over-eight sashes without horns.

At the rear, a crosswing of two storeys with an attic has a ridge stack positioned west of centre, walls of flint with red-brick dressings, a round-arched porch on the south-west gable containing double-leaf glazed doors, and casement windows. A two-storey service wing projects south-west from the front range to the south of the crosswing, with a pantile roof and red brick and flint walls.

Internally, the north room of the ground floor retains an 18th-century moulded cornice, a painted timber fire surround without ornament, window shutters and architraves, and a round-arched door to the rear. The south room has a mid- to late-18th-century painted fire surround with classical moulding and moulded architraves to the windows and door from Market Place. Between the front range and the rear crosswing, a lobby retains Doric pilasters, shallow arches and door architraves; a stair with 20th-century features provides access to the first floor. Behind the stair, a raised and fielded timber-panelled door, relocated from elsewhere, provides access to the cellar. In the crosswing at the rear, the east room retains a number of 18th-century architraves and a mid- to late-18th-century painted timber fire surround. The west room features a chamfered bridging beam with a lamb's tongue stop, likely dating from the 17th century, a substantial red-brick fire surround, and multi-phased pamment flooring. At first-floor level, the stair landing has a mid- to late-18th-century cornice and door surrounds, with a winder stair providing access to the attic storey. The two first-floor rooms overlooking Market Place retain a high proportion of 18th-century floorboards and 18th- or early-19th-century architraves and window shutters; the north room retains an 18th-century fireplace.

The first floor of the crosswing has a double-sided fireplace faced with early- to mid-20th-century brown glazed bricks. The room at the south-west corner retains late-18th- or early-19th-century cupboards and an early-19th-century painted timber fire surround with a cast-iron insert. The attic of the front range facing Market Place contains three garrets and retains mid- to late-18th-century timber floorboards and doors; the south garret has a simple stone fire surround on the south gable with a cast-iron insert.

The roof structure of the front range features two tiers of butt purlins, collars and straight windbraces. The roof of the crosswing is similar but with curved windbraces. The cellar likely incorporates 18th-century or earlier fabric and is brick-lined with six red-brick wine bins with shallow-arched heads.