39 and 41 Market Place

This is a former townhouse dating to around 1730-1740, built on the site of an early 16th-century house. It was remodelled in the 19th century with two shops created on the ground floor and living accommodation above. Shops and their frontages were updated in the mid-20th century for number 39 and in the late 20th century for number 41.

The building is constructed of red brick in a Flemish bond, with brick stacks and a roof of black-glazed pantiles. The principal elevation faces Market Place and is of two storeys with a dormer attic, spanning seven bays, with number 39 occupying four bays and number 41 occupying three. Number 39 has a neoclassical shopfront with four engaged Roman Doric columns supporting a plain entablature and modillioned cornice. Its bays contain a six-panelled passageway door with a square-paned fanlight, a three-panelled double-leaf door, and two multi-pane display windows above panelled stallrisers. Number 41 has a late 20th-century shopfront with a plate-glass display window and door, incorporating the three right-hand bays. Above, the first floor has seven six-over-six sash windows with stone sills and gauged skewback brick arches. A timber eaves cornice with modillions runs above. The gabled roof has two flat-topped dormers and one gabled dormer; the two left-hand dormers have three-over-three unhorned sashes while the third is blind and painted to resemble a dormer. The off-centre right ridge stack and internal gable-end stack to the west have both been rebuilt.

The passageway on the left-hand side contains roll and hollow-moulded joists and wall plates, likely dating to around 1500. The ground floor has been opened out and sub-divided into retail units in the 20th century, although cornices remain. The first floor's centre room features moulded cornices, two blocked doorways leading into the adjoining property at number 41, and large-framed panelling on the north wall, partially covered with boarding. The attic storey contains an 18th-century closed-string staircase with turned balusters and a moulded handrail.