87 High Street

A timber-framed cottage retaining later 16th or 17th century fabric, with a brick frontage and southern bay added around 1900.

The building employs box-framed timber construction with daub infill, set on a brick plinth. The frontage is of red brick with a rendered chimney stack to the north, while a rubble stone wall forms the rear outshut. The roof is covered in pegged clay tiles across the range. The two northern bays have brick floors, and the rooms above contain broad elm floorboards.

The cottage has a narrow three-bay arrangement with an attic level. The two northern bays represent the earliest, timber-framed portion. The southern bay was added around 1900. The main entrance opens into the northernmost room, providing access to a straight-flight staircase set against the eastern wall and an adjacent southern room. The additional southern bay at ground-floor level is reached via a narrow lean-to running along the rear of the cottage. The upper-floor end rooms are accessed through the central room.

The principal façade to the High Street results from the circa 1900 work, consisting of a three-bay brick frontage with an offset northern entrance enclosed by a later 20th-century porch. The front roof pitch of the northern bays integrates a pair of gabled dormers with scalloped bargeboards set between decorative alternating bands of pegged clay tiles. The dormer windows are four-paned horizontal Yorkshire sliding sashes; the two ground-floor windows are four-paned casements beneath arched brick heads. The gable ends are of rendered brick with scalloped bargeboards. The rebuilt main brick stack is set into the northern gable end.

To the rear, a ragstone outshut continues the roof profile at a slightly shallower pitch along the two earliest northern bays; this appears shown in the 1815 Enclosure Plan and may be an original element. To the south side, adjoining the extension bay, a simple corrugated iron lean-to addition is excluded from this listing.

Interior elements of the timber-frame remain in the two northern bays. At ground-floor level, both rooms retain chamfered spine beams with simple run-out stops. The rear wall of these bays consists of thin, unworked, close-studded scantling timbers set on a brick and rendered stone plinth (visible from the outshut). The end bays have simple cross braces rising from the plinth. A section of plinth and timber mid-rail remain in the end wall of the southern bay, though some rebuilding has occurred to this wall and the north end gable, apparently during the circa 1900 works. The enclosed straight-flight stairs from the northern room are of early date with roughly-worked timber treads and risers.

At attic level, parts of the original roof structure are visible, including a pair of trusses and a purlin. The north gable-end truss is largely exposed, consisting of clasped purlin construction with a heavily braced tie beam, struts to a collar supporting the purlins. The south truss is largely covered, though visible elements of timbers and daub infill suggest similar construction. A late 19th-century cast-iron fireplace has been inserted off-centre into the north wall, cutting into the tie beam, and a central doorway has been cut into the south truss. The west pitch of the roof along this range has been largely rebuilt to introduce the two gabled dormers, with the sawn-off purlin still evident in the end truss. On the east side, purlins run the full length of the range. The roof is plastered over, obscuring any surviving rafters. The two upper rooms of this part have broad elm floorboards. Doors throughout are plank and batten types with iron strap hinges of varying ages; several with broad and irregular planks probably date to the 17th or 18th century, whilst more regular machine-sawn examples were probably introduced around 1900.

The southern extension bay consists of a basic store room at ground-floor level. The brick plinth and weatherboarded walls represent a pre-1875 addition, now structurally encased by the later extension of approximately 1900. At first-floor level, the southernmost room has machine-sawn purlins and a two-light casement window to the southern gable end.

The rear outshut is simply constructed, with roughly-coursed ragstone structure and a timber wall plate visible internally. A later stepped brick stack to the north end is built against the rear wall. At the south end, in line with the extension bay, a toilet and store area is set under a basic corrugated iron lean-to structure added in the latter half of the 20th century, not treated as part of the listed building.

Simple metal bar railings mark the boundary of the plot to the High Street.