Ancient House Priest'S House

This is a pair of houses, known as Ancient House and Priest’s House, dating from the late 15th to early 16th century, with later alterations and renovations. They are timber-framed and have plain tile roofs. A red brick stack is present. The two ranges stand with their gable ends facing the street. Ancient House is two bays wide, while Priest’s House is three bays wide and slightly taller. Both houses have two storeys, with an attic in Priest’s House. The first floors are jettied to the front. Close studding is visible throughout the timber framing.

Access to Ancient House is through a single-storey addition on the left side. A restored 6-light diamond mullion window and a single arched light are on the ground floor. Above is a 5-light mullion window. Features include jowled posts, arched down braces, and a swept roof. The Priest’s House has an added porch on its right return. Fine inserted windows are a defining feature, including a 7-light mullion window with ogee-traceried heads on the ground floor, alongside 3-light mullion side windows with leaf scroll carved sills. Slender attached colonnettes with capitals support the jetty brackets. There's also a moulded wall plate and a vine scroll bressumer. A 7-light mullion window above has ogee lights and panelled Perpendicular tracery, with panels of blind tracery below. A moulded tie beam and a 2-light window are visible in the attic. The roof is steeply pitched and swept. A stack rises in the valley of the roofs. The right return has a gabled porch with a seemingly reused Tudor-arched entrance and traceried windows.

Inside Ancient House, there's a deep chamfer-stopped beam with exposed joists. A large orange brick inglenook is present, featuring moulded corbelled-out jambs and a cambered bressumer, with a moulded brick panel above. A blocked arched doorway in a partition wall leads to Priest’s House. The first floor is open to the roof. A central truss is incorporated into a later partition wall, displaying a chamfered jowled post, arch brace to a chamfered cambered tie beam supporting a chamfered crown post with a run-out stop braced to a collar purlin. There’s a further brick inglenook with corbelled-out jambs and a cambered bressumer bearing probable merchant's marks.

Priest’s House features moulded wall plates and a central moulded beam with run-out stop and moulded joists. A blocked Tudor-arched door against a partition wall connects to Ancient House. Another Tudor-arched doorway with cavetto jambs and carved spandrels is found on the rear wall. An unusual fine cambered bressumer with cresting and cusped mouchette enrichment adorns a remodelled inglenook. A wall post displays a pair of carved heads, one male and one female. A 17th-century staircase includes original treads and risers, along with chamfered newels with paired ball finials, column balusters, and a moulded handrail. The crown post roof has square posts with thin chamfered braces to the purlin.