12-16, ELM HILL

A row of three houses at 12-16 Elm Hill, dating from the timber-frame period and now used as two shops and a house. Numbers 12 and 14 have a timber frame with brick on the ground floor, while number 16 has a rendered ground floor. The first floor and dormers are rendered throughout. The roof is tiled, with brick coping to the left-hand gable and a brick gable-end chimney to the right.

The houses are two storeys and have an attic, with a first-floor jetty and six first-floor windows, one of which is blocked. A central passage features a moulded surround to the door, which has ribs, iron studs, and a four-centred head, along with a smaller door of similar design. The shops at numbers 12 and 14 have flush panelled and part-glazed doors set within simple moulded doorcases with corner roundels. Number 16 has a six-panelled door and a simple fluted doorcase. Ground-floor windows have glazing bars, with external shutters to numbers 12 and 14. The window of number 12 is slightly bowed, replicating a feature on the left-hand side elevation. Number 16 has one small glazing-bar sash window with a wooden shutter, and two large-paned sash windows flanking the door. Five first-floor windows are mullioned and transomed casements, with one similar window in the side elevation. There is a box cornice beneath three gabled dormers, each with a casement window, plain bargeboards and turned pendants. The rear elevations of numbers 14 and 16 are built with flint rubble walls and diaper-pattern brickwork. Following 1864, the buildings were briefly used as a monastery, under the direction of Reverend J.L. Lyne, who styled himself Father Ignatius.