The Elms, 42 High Street

The Elms, 42 High Street

An early 18th-century two-storey house with cellar and attic, possibly of earlier origin, remodelled and extended in the early 19th century with later additions.

The building shows evidence of early 18th-century timber-framing internally but was re-fronted in the early 19th century with brown brick laid in stretcher bond and recently repointed. The bonding is inconsistent across elevations: the early 19th-century extension employs Flemish bond in brown brick, while the mid-18th-century rear extension uses red brick in English bond. The hipped roof is tiled with brick stacks to the rear left and right. A decorative brick cornice runs below the eaves, most apparent on the early 19th-century rear and side elevations.

The original 18th-century building comprised an L-shaped plan including a central entrance hall with stair at the north-east rear, two formal rooms on the ground floor to the front, a dining room with separate roof and centrally cut-off stack, a cellar, and a single-storey service range comprising kitchen and cold store or scullery to the rear. A two-storey two-room wing was added to the west in the early 19th century.

The early 19th-century re-fronted facade is symmetrical in three bays across two storeys and attics, with the added left-hand bay set back slightly. A stepped encaustic tiled entrance leads to an early 20th-century timbered-gabled porch at the centre, containing a glazed and panelled double door. Above this is a blind integral arched fanlight with wooden glazing bars in a batwing pattern rising above the porch ceiling. The rear of the building retains a decorative ironwork porch of early to mid-19th-century character with anthemion cresting and filigree panels, possibly reused from or similar in style to the original front entrance. The facade fenestration is symmetrical: two early to mid-19th-century six-over-six pane sash windows at ground floor level with flat arches, and three matching six-over-six pane sashes at first floor level. Two 20th-century flat-roof casement dormers project through the hipped roof. To the rear and west elevation, early to mid-19th-century sash windows of varying sizes light the ground and first floors. The rear room and north elevation of the scullery have 12-over-12 pane sashes, with the bedroom above lit by a six-over-six pane sash. The kitchen window on the north elevation is wider and slides horizontally. A projecting first-floor early 20th-century extension at the rear north-west corner is lit by two casement windows. At the rear western corner at first floor level, external access to the yard is now reduced to a single hinged door.

The interior retains substantial 18th-century character. The main central hall contains a closed-string 18th-century staircase at the rear north-east corner with square newels, turned balusters with half-balusters against the newels, and a moulded rail, though the first-floor section has been altered. The ground floor hall has 18th-century dado panelling beneath a moulded cornice. The room to the right (north) features pitch pine dado panels, moulded architraves, and a pitch pine six-panelled door; its window has sash boxes with vertical sliding shutters, a moulded cornice, and a boxed-in ceiling beam. The fireplace is marble with rebuilt brick lining. The central room has similar window treatment with sash boxes and vertical sliding shutters, and a marble fireplace surround with a round cast-iron grate. A small cupboard to the right of the fireplace has been partially blocked. The room has a possibly 18th-century panelled door. The 1820s drawing room to the left (south) retains one original sash with moulded architrave and an original ornate ceiling cornice featuring repeated rose emblems, chevron and bead mouldings. It has a marble fireplace, possibly introduced later, panelled doors with simple round or oval knob furniture. The rear room, perhaps formerly a housekeeper's room now used as a study, has tall built-in cupboards flanking the chimneybreast. The rear room used as a dining room contains a boxed-in transverse beam and a large inglenook fireplace with timber bressumer. The rear north-west room, now the kitchen, has a deep well. The scullery to the north of the dining room features stone slab and tile flooring, with a projecting bracket suggesting an overhanging roof that may once have sheltered a passage to the yard. The cellar contains an 18th-century door with nailed hinges and brick steps, with substantial timber-framing evident in the cross wall. A vaulted brick tunnel leads to a vaulted coal cellar. The internal partition wall of the hall is timber-framed with visible wattle and daub infill behind a panel on the stairway.

The first floor includes an 18th-century doorcase to the front right room (north). The main 1820s bedroom has a 19th-century fireplace surround. An internal partition wall divides the central room, and fibreboard covers the hall stair-wall, concealing evidence of wattle and daub. A projecting WC is lined with wood matchboard panelling and retains a patterned ceramic bowl. The internal bathroom rear wall is partially exposed, revealing standard brick and timber lacing. The attic is reached by a newel staircase, possibly 18th-century, and retains some wide floorboards.

The roof spans three main construction phases. The rear slope of the front range features staggered purlins, while the front slope employs butt purlins cut away for three dormers. The rear range has a clasped purlin roof with trusses numbered south to north in Roman numerals; some are blank and not consecutively ordered, indicating that some may have been reassembled during later alterations and extensions.

The late 20th-century integral garage attached to the rear is not included in the listing as it is not considered of special interest.