Hartshorn House The Link

Hartshorn House, known by that name since the Napoleonic Wars when it served as a hospital, began as a private house. The front section is a 15th-century timber-framed building, with many of the original timbers having been renewed. The first floor overhangs on brackets shaped like double volutes. Three gables were added in the 16th century, one dated 1576, and they are carried on curved coving and brackets, topped with a tiled roof. Modern easement windows have been installed. A passageway runs through the ground floor at the west end of the house, featuring a wrought iron gate. Behind the main house is a 16th-century wing. The house also includes a stone vaulted cellar, Tudor fireplaces, and 18th-century panelling. To the east is an 18th-century house that has been rebuilt in modern times. Now serving as the service wing of the Old Hospital, it is two stories high with three windows, constructed in red brick with grey headers. It has a wooden cornice and a tiled roof, all renewed, and a six-panel moulded door. A mediaeval cellar lies beneath this later house. The listed buildings along Mermaid Street form a group.