Former Post Office and Store

Former Post Office and Store

This building dates from around 1848–1857 and was constructed for Sir Samuel Morton Peto, probably designed by John Thomas. It has been converted into a dwelling and bicycle hire shop in 2017.

The two-storey former post office is built in red brick laid in Flemish bond with yellow brick dressings, and the roof is covered in plain red clay tiles. It is designed in a picturesque style and faces south-east onto The Street.

The building has a rectangular plan consisting of the main range with a single-storey rear projection and a mid-20th-century single-storey extension on the south-west side, now used as a bicycle hire shop. An L-shaped outbuilding stands to the rear (north-west).

The distinctive M-shaped roof is embellished with decorative bargeboards and prominent finials. Two chimney stacks in Suffolk white brick with oversailing eaves and circular pots rise through the eaves on the right return, and one on the left return. The left chimney is stepped, whilst the right is corbelled out at first-floor level.

The façade is symmetrical, comprising two gabled bays lit on the ground floor by canted bay windows with wooden frames under tiled roofs. The fixed plate glass windows are not original. Between the bays is a four-panel front door with glazed upper panels, sheltered by a gabled canopy with bargeboards supported by wooden brackets. To the left of the door, set within the wall, is a painted cast-iron post box bearing the initials GR. The first floor is lit by two four-light casement windows with segmental arch upper sections, filled with original lattice cames. The windows and door have blocked brick surrounds, with blocked yellow brick also used to suggest quoins at the building's corners.

Adjoining the left side is a mid-20th-century single-storey extension of red brick with a hipped roof, containing a door on the left and a three-light window with plate glass to the right. Above this, the left return of the main building features a gabled dormer across the eaves with decorative bargeboards, a finial, and lattice cames. The right (north-east) return is dominated by projecting chimney breasts with blocked yellow brick quoins.

At the rear is a single-storey projection under a pitched roof clad in pantiles with yellow brick quoins. The windows have segmental arch upper sections and blocked brick surrounds, though the glazing is not original. A small lean-to has been added at some point in the 20th century.

The interior has been converted into a dwelling and bicycle hire shop in 2017 and does not retain any original fixtures and fittings relating to its former use as a post office and store.

The L-shaped outbuilding to the rear is constructed of red brick laid in Flemish bond with a mono-pitch roof clad in pantiles. The long range contains, from the left, a door with a glazed upper panel, a three-light window with plate glass (not original), a double-leaf plank and batten door, followed by another three-light window and a 20th-century four-leaf door with large glazed panels. This range has a Queen post roof truss and retains a ring fixed to the floor, presumably relating to its former usage as a slaughter house. The short range has three plank and batten doors of varying widths and retains brick-laid floors.