14, Crown Street

House, circa 1630 with later 18th-century rebuilding and raising of the south end. Mid-19th-century facing added to the front.

The building is constructed of timber frame, plastered and whitewashed to the south end and rear, with polychromatic brick facing to the front. It has a pantile roof with ridge and right-end stacks. The plan follows a 3-bay cross-passage arrangement with the low end probably originally a single storey, which was rebuilt and raised to two storeys in the later 18th century, re-using elements of the original frame. The house is incorporated within a terrace of three houses, with an uninterrupted mid-19th-century decorative brick facing of red brick with white brick dressings to windows, door and quoins, and three horizontal bands of single courses of white brick.

The front elevation displays a 3-window range at first-floor level of 3-light mullion windows with metal casements, and three windows also on the ground floor of 3-light mullion and transom casements. A 4-panel door corresponds to the former screens passage. The south gable end, now forming the side of a vehicle entrance but originally exposed, has an external stack probably from the 18th century with sloping set-offs.

The rear has a small 19th-century lean-to extension of brick and flint at the northern end, with a doorway featuring an early 19th-century moulded doorcase with corner paterae corresponding to the through-passage. Casement windows are also present. Within the extension the external wall of the timber frame is visible, showing that the principal posts and possibly the mid-rail were originally exposed on the exterior rather than covered by plaster. The original render with exposed principal posts flush with the plaster can be seen within the roof space of the extension.

Internally, close-studded timber framing is visible together with transverse bridging beams. A stack with large bressumer is prominent. The stack was either rebuilt or partly rebuilt to add upper-floor flues, as it exceeds the defined bay in the frame, and as a result one tie beam has been removed and the jowls of the principal posts cut back. The north corners of the frame feature 'up' braces, with former braces to the tie beam and evidence of former 'up' braces to the original south gable end. An edge-halved and bridled scarf joint to the wall plates shows long halvings. A 20th-century straight stair now occupies the position of the original winder stair to the west side of the stack.

One diamond mullion window survives in the parlour (north) chamber. Shutter rebates remain to the hall (central) chamber windows. The upper part of the southernmost bay is an addition, probably from the 18th century, and probably re-uses timbers from the original single-storey low-end bay, as evidenced by the wide and flat ceiling joists on the ground floor, similar to those in the central bay. A blocked first-floor window opening in the former south gable end demonstrates that the south bay was originally single storey. The 18th-century roof structure comprises wedge-tenoned staggered butt-purlins and mortised-and-tenoned collars.

This is a 17th-century timber-framed house that has remained comparatively little altered, retaining wall and ceiling framing and an open fireplace with bressumer. The raising of the original single-storey low end and rebuilding of the roof structure in the 18th century are also noteworthy. However, the fine polychromatic brickwork of the uniform front leaves no external evidence of this survival from the street. Of particular significance is the survival of a small piece of the original external plastering finish, indicating that the principal elements of the timber-frame were exposed to the exterior, contrary to the normal Norfolk practice of plastering over the frame on the exterior and leaving it exposed on the interior.