53 And 54, Westgate Street

53 and 54 Westgate Street are a pair of cottages dating from the 18th century, with an extension added in the early 19th century. The cottages are timber-framed, featuring red brick on the lower wall of the east gable, and are roughcast rendered with a plain tiled roof and gable chimney-stacks.

The buildings are two storeys high with attics, and have gable end chimney-stacks. There are two windows on the front: the first storey has small-paned, two-light casement windows, while the ground storey features sash windows—No. 53 has a 12-pane sash, and No. 54 has plain glass, both set in flush cased frames. The cottages also have two gabled dormers with two-light single bar casement windows and two central boarded entrance doors. At the back, the two-storey extension has a lean-to roof that follows the slope of the main roof.

Inside, there are no cellars. The cottages share a similar layout, originally consisting of a single living room at the front, with a walk-in larder and corner stair behind. The 19th-century extension expanded the larder into a room, removing the original rear wall. The infill between the studding of the partition wall has been removed in each cottage to create one larger room. Each red brick chimney-stack has been reinstated with open hearths and timber lintels, with No. 54 featuring a marked camber. Both cottages contain many reused timbers and have very light framing, with a newel stair beside each stack. On the west side, No. 53 is adjacent to the adjoining house and has a section of plastered external wall with comb-pargetting backing on the stair. All roof timbers are covered; the original roof of No. 54 was destroyed by fire in 1982.