42, Chesil Street

This is a house, dating back to 1292-3 according to tree-ring analysis, with significant alterations in the 17th century and an early 19th-century remodelling and extension. It is timber-framed, with portions rebuilt and re-faced in painted brick, and has a clay tile roof with gabled ends, old crested ridge tiles, and a brick stack at the rear.

The original plan consisted of two bays and two rooms, initially open to the roof and heated by a central hearth. A floor was inserted around the 17th century, creating a larger room on the north side, heated by a stack at the back, and a smaller, unheated room to the south. A rear wing was added around the early 19th century, and further extensions were added in the 20th century.

The east-facing front has two windows on each floor, with a parapet above. The ground floor features a plank door and a 16-pane sash window on the right; the first floor has a 12-pane sash window on the right and a small, 20th-century 2-light casement window on the left. The west-facing rear wing has a gambrel roof and 20th-century flat-roofed extensions.

Inside, the right-hand room features a chamfered axial beam without stops, a brick fireplace in the rear wall with an unchamfered timber bressumer, and exposed wall framing to the right. The chamber above has an exposed tie-beam in the north end wall, and a bolection-moulded chimney-piece with a moulded shelf and an early 20th-century tiled iron grate on the rear wall. A circa early 19th-century staircase with turned newels and stick balusters is located in the rear wing. A particularly important feature is the medieval roof structure, tree-ring dated to 1292-3. It comprises two smoke-blackened bays with three tie-beam trusses, rising to a ridge-purlin, and featuring king-posts and straight longitudinal braces extending from the king-posts to the ridge-purlin. Curved under-rafters rise from the tie-beams to the king-posts, with diagonal braces connecting the lower parts of the king-posts to the principal rafters and clamping the side-purlins. The common-rafter couples are of similar scantling to the principal rafters. The south bay and its two trusses are complete, but the north truss is incomplete, with the common rafters and purlins of the north bay having been replaced. Some original wall framing is also visible.