24 Winchester Street

This is a house, likely built around 1820, probably for the mill manager of Whitchurch Silk Mill. The house is constructed of mixed soft red brick with a rendered plinth and slate roofs. It stands on the southern side of Winchester Street, with its main, north-eastern facing elevation separated from the street by a narrow pavement. The house has an L-shaped plan and a central staircase plan with an open well stair. The rear of the property overlooks the silk mill and its grounds. The roofs are hipped, with a cat slide to the rear.

The symmetrical main elevation is built of brick in Flemish bond, presenting three bays over two storeys. The entrance is defined by a moulded timber architrave with slender pilasters, beneath a flat timber canopy supported by slender barley twist cast iron shafts. The front door has seven panels, the two upper lights being glazed, and it is located within timber panelled linings. The first floor features three sash windows with ten over ten panes, each set beneath a segmental arch. Most of the sash windows, excluding those on the south-eastern elevation, have slender glazing bars and are recessed into the brickwork. Later 19th-century ground floor bay windows have hipped slate roofs and paired sash windows between decorative pilasters.

The south-western elevation abuts a later cottage and incorporates a single first floor horned sash window with three over three panes under a segmental arch, likely added when the cottage was built. The north-western elevation has two bays with ground and first floor sash windows of eight over eight panes; one has a replacement timber lintel, and the others are set beneath segmental arches. At the rear, the south-western elevation has a single eight over eight sash window, also under a segmental arch.

A cogged eaves course of angled bricks runs along the building; this has been altered or repaired on the north-western elevation. Cast iron guttering is supported by iron stays. Internal brick chimney stacks rise from the ridges of both the south-eastern and north-western elevations. A rear outshut has a tin and slate roof.

The interior retains some 19th-century panelling and a fireplace in the rear morning room. The sitting room and dining rooms have 20th-century fireplace surrounds and ceiling mouldings. Two of the bedrooms have 19th-century small cast iron grates with plain surrounds. A dogleg staircase has been altered and repaired.