6, 8 AND 10, THE STREET

Nos. 6, 8, and 10 on The Street are three houses that were formerly known as The Bell Inn. This late-medieval H-plan open-hall house may have been built in two or three stages. It has two storeys and features a timber-framed and plastered structure, with the upper floors of both cross-wings jettied towards the street. The roofs are covered with plain tiles and have axial and external chimneys made of red brick. The 19th-century small-pane casements are present, and the ground storey windows of both cross-wings are fitted with hinged boarded shutters. The entrance doors are also boarded.

The central range, which is No. 8, includes a 15th-century open hall with two equal bays. The open truss features a cambered and hollow-chamfered tie-beam and shows evidence of massive arch-bracing. The close studwork is of good quality, and there is a six-light diamond mullioned window in the front wall. An unmoulded upper floor was added in the 16th century. The left-hand cross-wing has a pointed arched doorway leading into the hall and may date from around 1400 or earlier. The right-hand cross-wing displays exposed tension-braced close-studwork and is likely an addition as a parlour or solar wing from the late 15th or early 16th century; the chimney between the parlour and the hall is probably a 17th-century insertion. All roofs were renewed in the 19th century.