44, High Street

This is a late 16th-century house with a shop, which was remodelled in the late 17th century and subsequently altered in the 19th and 20th centuries. The building is timber-framed with weatherboarding and brick cladding, set on a rubble plinth to the side elevation. It features a Kent tile gable roof and a lateral brick stack. Originally a two-unit end-jetty plan, the house was subdivided into three units when a staircase was inserted in the late 17th century. It is two storeys and an attic in height, and has a two-window range facing the High Street.

The front of the building is entirely weatherboarded, with a prominent first-floor jetty. All windows have moulded wooden cornices and surrounds, and are hornless sashes, with a single six-pane window in the attic and twelve panes elsewhere. A late 19th-century shop window curves around the corner onto Two Posts Alley, featuring slender vertical glazing posts. A contemporary door with modern glazing leads to a tiled entrance floor.

The left-hand return is weatherboarded, while the right-hand return has brick and plaster infill, with a small 2-light casement window to the second floor, and a twelve-pane hornless sash to the first floor. Ground-floor windows have been blocked. A side wall continues as a rubble plinth and incorporates a 16th-century doorway, which may not be original to the site. It has a square-headed surround with cyma-recta moulding and chalice stops. The roof above this side is sprocketted, and the jettying towards Two Posts Alley is a later alteration. The rear of the building features a 2-light attic casement window and twelve-pane hornless sashes to the first and ground floors, all weatherboarded.

Inside, the ground floor has limited visible features. The timber framing remains intact on the first and second floors. Principal intersecting ceiling beams, stop-chamfered with run-out stops, divide the building into two rooms on each floor. Later partitions were added when the lateral staircase was inserted. The staircase has a framed newel design with turned balusters and ball finials (many of which are missing) on square-section newels. It has a side purlin roof with wind braces. Some later furnishings remain, including a late 18th-century fireplace with a panelled frieze, dentilled cornice, and moulded surround; a moulded corner cupboard; and some plank doors with spur hinges.