51-55, HIGH STREET

The buildings at 51 to 55 High Street form a complex dating from the 15th to 18th centuries, situated on the South Side. The front range comprises timber-framed buildings with close-studding visible on numbers 53 and 55, while number 51 has a plastered front. The buildings are two storeys high with attics, topped by a hipped tiled roof with two gabled dormers, and feature six windows and a loft door with hoist. Sashes with original glazing bars remain, with one small three-light window also present. Although the ground floors have modern shop fronts, the north-west corner of number 55 retains curved, glazed double doors set within a reeded architrave, and numbers 53 and 55 exhibit exposed timber beams and chamfered edges. Number 55 also includes a four-centred doorway with blank spandrels.

At the rear, overlooking the Churchyard, is an 18th-century house called Church Gates. It is constructed of red brick with a hipped tiled roof featuring a wooden modillion eaves cornice. The house has four windows, some of which are modern, as well as a 19th-century cast iron balcony on the first floor. The front door is set within a moulded architrave, featuring a projecting cornice supported on consoles, a low rectangular fanlight, and a six-panelled moulded door. Behind number 51 is another 18th-century building, two storeys high and stuccoed, with a hipped tiled roof and one hipped dormer and a sash window retaining its original glazing bars. The ground floor has a shop front and the doors are plain recessed.

Numbers 51 to 55 form a group of buildings with numbers 61 (odd), 61A, 63 to 67 (odd), 67A, 69 to 71 (odd), 75, and the rear part of 75, all located within the Churchyard.