20 And 22, Church Street

Two houses on Church Street date from the early 17th century, with significant remodelling in the early 18th century and later alterations. The houses are built with a roughcast timber frame and have a pantiled roof. They are two storeys with a dormer attic, featuring a four-window front. The house at No.20 has a 6-panelled door with the upper two panels glazed, dating to the late 18th century, while the door at No.22 is a 20th-century replacement. A single-storey canted bay window was added in the 19th century, centrally between the doors, and has 20th-century leaded casements. The ground floor windows on the right side of the elevation are a 2-light and a 4-light late 19th-century casement. The first-floor windows from right to left consist of a 4-light 19th-century casement, a 2-light 19th-century casement, a small late 19th or early 20th-century oriel window with 1/1 and 2/2 horned sashes, and a 2/2 horned sash. The roof is gabled, with four flat-topped 20th-century dormers fitted with casements. A ridge stack is located to the left of the centre, and there's an external gable-end stack to the west. The east gable has a single-storey lean-to outshut with a 3-light 20th-century casement. The interior of No.20 includes an early 17th-century sunk-quadrant moulded bridging beam in the entrance hall. A blocked arched doorway, formerly leading to No.22, features panelled jambs with capitals below a keyblocked round arch. The staircase lobby is accessed via a 4-centred archway. There’s small-framed dado panelling with a masonic influence. A closed-string early 17th-century staircase features turned balusters on square-section bases, moulded handrails, and a string with a pulvinated frieze carved with incised diamond and oval patterns. The square newel posts are enriched with raised oval and diamond decoration. A west ground-floor room has large-framed early 18th-century panelling, panelled boxed bridging beams, a bolection-moulded chimneypiece with a pulvinated frieze, and a rafter and purlin roof of the early 18th century. Group value is present due to this historic arrangement.