Nos 55 And 57 With Piers, Railings And Gates

Nos. 55 and 57 are a pair of houses built in the early 19th century. They are constructed from limestone ashlar and have slate roofs. The houses are single-depth with hipped roofs and slightly set-back wings that contain entrance doors. Due to the steeply sloping site, there is an extra storey at the rear. The buildings are two storeys plus a lower ground floor, each featuring one window and a central blind light. The windows are sixteen-pane sashes with segmental heads, set in double-sunk surrounds, and the lower ground floor windows are enclosed by railed areas. There is a stone moulded eaves band with brackets and a large central ashlar stack positioned forward of the ridge, with a coped party division.

Each house has a six-panel door with a transom light, set in a segmental head with a double-sunk surround and a moulded band that sweeps up to the main range. The left gable of No. 55 has a central first-floor sash window. No. 57, on the right, has a similar door and band, with its wing raised in ashlar and featuring a twelve-pane sash window. The returns have a plain parapeted end facing Forefield Rise, which slopes downward rapidly, with a door leading to the pavement at the lower end. The rear is finished in ashlar with a one:three:one window arrangement, but the central unit is blind on each floor. Most windows are sixteen-pane sashes, with a twelve-pane sash in the extended wing of No. 55.

Each end of the frontage features a square ashlar pier capped with a pyramid, and there are simple railings that return to the fronts at the party division. Full-width spearhead railings are levelled across the slope to an ashlar dwarf wall that ranges from approximately 1.2 meters to 0.5 meters high, with a small iron gate at each end.