3 And 4, Crown Street

A pair of houses dating to the early 19th century, with a core dating back to the 16th century. The houses have timber framing, white brick fronts, and slate roofs finished with a plain eaves cornice. The frontages are three storeys high, with cellars below. They feature a four-window range: the first floor has 12-pane sash windows set in deep reveals, while the second floor has six-pane sashes. A raised stucco band sits below the first-storey windows. Number 3 has two tripartite sash windows on the ground floor, with heavy woodwork, moulded cornices, and a blank semicircular-headed arch between. Number 4 has two 12-pane sash windows similar to those on the first floor, and a blank semicircular arch at its southern end. All windows have flat, gauged arches. The two semicircular-headed doorways have six-panelled doors, with the top two panels glazed, and rectangular fanlights above.

Inside Number 3, there is a long, three-bay range extending at right angles to the street and into a rear gable. Studwork is exposed on the upper part of both the north and south walls. To the south, the framing connects with that of Number 4. On the rear of the upper storey, the roof slope was pushed out into a gable in the 17th century, creating an attic storey above. A Jacobean dog-leg staircase is located within the raised section, featuring moulded balusters, a handrail, closed strings, and square, chamfered newels with solid acorn finials.

Number 4 includes a narrow cellar below part of the front, with walls constructed of stone blocks, brick, and flint, along with old render and 19th-century brickwork. The timber ceiling retains some original flat joists. The ground floor consists of a single, large two-bay room facing the street, with exposed studding and heavy, flat, unchamfered joists. Some of the studding in the rear wall has been renewed. A blocked original doorway in the partition wall separates it from Number 3. A fireplace on the rear wall has a stone surround with a moulded, depressed Tudor arch, stone side walls, and stone blocks mixed with red brick above. The upper room also has exposed studding and the blocked remains of an original window, as well as a further gable at the rear.