14, 15 AND 16, THE SQUARE

A house, now a row of houses, dating to the mid-15th century, with alterations in the early 18th and early 19th centuries. The building is timber-framed and largely clad in chequered red and grey brick from the early to mid-18th century, with the left-end bay added in the early 19th century and faced with red brick on the ground floor and mathematical tiling above. It has a plain tile roof. The original form was a Wealden house with a hall of two roughly equal bays and a single-story bay at each end. The recess was retained, but the jetties were underbuilt. A rear wing extends from No. 16 on the right, and an 18th-century wing from No. 14 on the left, connecting the front range to what may have been former stables and forming a courtyard.

The building is two stories with attics and a cellar, set on a plinth with a plat band to all but the left end bay. A moulded wood eaves cornice runs across the front elevation, with plain modillions underneath. The roof is half-hipped, and there are three brick stacks: a small stack projecting from the left gable end, a central ridge stack with multiple bricks, and a large projecting stack on the right end. Three dormers, each with a triangular modillioned pediment, span Nos. 15 and 16. The fenestration is irregular, with six windows. There is a 19th-century three-light casement to the left end, three sashes with thick glazing bars in the central recess, and two glazing-bar sashes to the right end bay. Ground floor windows have rubbed brick voussoirs. A boarded door is in the left gable end of No. 14. The door to No. 15 has four fielded panels, two top lights and a plain rectangular fanlight, also from the early 19th century. A chequered red and grey brick porch with a moulded brick cornice, beneath a stack, is offset to the right of the recess. The door to No. 16 is accessed by three steps, with three panels and three vertical top lights, accompanied by Doric pilasters carrying a plain entablature and a short flat hood. The interior of No. 15 features a central truss with a hollow chamfer to the post and very large braces, as well as ogee end-of-hall braces. An original cellar, unusual for this type of building, is located beneath the right end bay (No. 16). Exposed timbers are also present. The interiors of Nos. 14 and 16 have not been inspected. The building exhibits features from the 15th, late 16th/early 17th, 18th and 19th centuries.