The Square Surgery

The Square Surgery is a timber-frame hall and cross-wing building, dating from the 15th or early 16th century, with alterations in the early and later 17th century, and again in the 18th and 20th centuries. It is now used as a surgery. The structure is timber frame with painted brick infill, Flemish bond brick, rubblestone, and tile-hung sections, all beneath plain tile roofs.

The building originally comprised a three-bay open hall range, with a cross-wing to the left and a wing to the rear left, and a further parallel cross-wing to the left. The High Street elevation presents a main cross-wing with a 20th-century bay window on the ground floor, featuring leaded casements under a hipped roof. Above this, the timber frame shows posts, rails, braces from posts to tie-beam, and in the gable, two tiers of collars and queen posts. To the right is a section with an 18th-century brick frontage, altered in the 20th century, with a tile-hung first floor. A two-panel door is set under a pent canopy between bays, and casement windows are spaced on each floor, featuring 2, 3, and 2 lights. A parapet partially conceals the roof, which is hipped at the right end with a gablet, and has a hip rising above it at the left end for the taller rear wing; a stack with T-section flues is situated to the rear of the central bay. A further gabled cross-wing is tile-hung. The rear of the building largely features rubblestone on the ground floor. The external hall stack has brick quoins and rises in brick above an offset. A tall-panelled timber frame is visible on the first floor to the left of the stack. A wing to the left has three early 17th-century regularly-framed bays, with a later 17th-century square-panelled bay at the end. A range to the right of the wing is mostly brick and of 20th-century construction.

Internally, the hall and cross-wing have large-scantling joists laid flat. Plank and muntin panelling was removed from between the hall and cross-wing, but survives between the left and central bays of the hall. The central bay of the hall features stop-chamfered joists, moulded arrises to the cross- and spine-beams, and an inglenook fireplace with timber jambs and lintel. A 20th-century staircase incorporates a moulded handrail, reused turned balusters, and a reused balustrade to the landing on the first floor. The hall framing shows braces from posts to mid-rail.