18 Market Place

This former house, built around 1780 to 1800, was later adapted for use as a school in 1896. It is constructed of red brick with a slate roof and is roughly rectangular in plan, facing north-east onto Market Place.

The front elevation is two storeys high and three bays wide, with a pitched slate roof, internal red-brick chimneystacks on the north and south gables, and projecting bracketed eaves over the front. The brick walls are laid in Flemish bond, with a painted plat band above the ground floor. A relocated wall plaque at first floor level records the foundation of a school in 1736 by Nicholas Hamond. The south bay of the ground floor features a stuccoed doorcase with minor incised decoration and a plain entablature, incorporating a margined overlight and a six-panelled door. The ground and first floors have two and three bays of windows respectively, each with gauged skewback arches and six-over-six sash windows, the central first-floor window having horns.

The interior includes an entrance hall with a sandstone floor and a plain moulded cornice. A curved stair at the west end has stick balusters and a wreathed handrail. A drawing room north of the hall has a moulded cornice, lugged surrounds to doors and windows, fitted cupboards and a classical timber fire surround with a cast-iron and glazed tile insert. A rear corridor has hexagonal pamments and a door with an overlight to the rear lobby. A rear room, partially rebuilt in 1954 to create a library, retains an early 19th-century lugged door surround, dado rail and skirting. The north room on the first floor, overlooking Market Place, retains an early 19th-century moulded cornice and ceiling rose, window shutters, architraves, and a painted stone fire surround. The south room on the first floor retains a cornice, splayed window shutters, architraves and a timber fire surround with ovals in a frieze linked by swags. A two-storey library was added to the rear in 1954, featuring three large bays of windows to the south-west.