25 and 27 High Street

Two commercial premises, probably originally a single house, located on High Street. Built in the late 16th or early 17th century, extended in the later 17th century, and refronted in the late 18th or early 19th century. Further alterations occurred in the later 19th, 20th and 21st centuries.

The building is constructed of cut and squared stone rubble and brick with painted walls. The roofs are gabled and covered with concrete tiles and slate. No chimneystacks survive.

The plan comprises a rectangular footprint. The original two-storey front range with attics, of single depth, extends to a two-storey wing at right angles to the rear of number 25, with various other rear extensions of one and two storeys added between the late 17th century and the 20th century.

The principal elevation facing High Street has four bays and features a central round-headed doorway in a brick surround with a modern panelled door, flanked by shop fronts with plate-glass windows and a modern continuous fascia. The first-floor windows are mid-20th century steel casements with timber sub-frames. Two dormer windows also have steel frames of this date. The Bell Lane elevation has an inserted attic window set in brick in the gabled end. The wing attached to number 27 is built of coursed stone rubble, though brick coursing below the eaves and at the gable apex indicates the roof has been raised. On the right end bay on Bell Lane are inserted openings: a timber sash window on the ground floor and a uPVC window above, both set in brick and later insertions. The wing extends south-west, probably in the 18th century, with a parallel brick range under the same roof. To the south-east is a lower, narrow two-storey addition built on a slight skew with modern uPVC windows. The southern wing to number 25, substantially rebuilt in the late 20th century, has stone rubble walls to the south-west and north-west sides, now rendered, and a north-east elevation of red brick with plain tile hanging to the apex of the south-west gable. Records from the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England survey refer to a 17th-century window with stone surround in the south-west wall, though it is unclear if it remains.

The ground floor of 25 High Street has been opened up with removal of the wall between the front range and rear wing. The central section has a ceiling divided by moulded oak ribs into a geometric pattern of squares. Number 27 retains a series of inter-connected ground-floor rooms with suspended ceilings, modern joinery and shop fittings. A patterned ceiling was present in the mid-20th century. The passage between 25 and 27 is understood to contain a stone doorway with a four-centred lintel. The first floor of 25 is accessed from a staircase against the east wall, though building plans from 1972 indicate a staircase previously existed in the rear wing. The two front rooms upstairs have been opened up. The inner room, interrupted by a later stud wall, has a moulded cornice and a hexagonal patterned ceiling of moulded oak ribs. A first-floor gallery probably once extended the full length of the rear wings, but all but its north end has been lost during rebuilding. At the foot of the attic stairs is an 18th-century two-panel door with raised and fielded panels. Only the lower part of the roof structure is visible in the attic, though a mid-20th century drawing records a queen post roof with two rows of purlins and windbraces. The windbraces are set one side of the trusses only, bracing the upper purlin, with each pair of braces forming a four-centred arch. The queen posts are missing and the upper section of the roof is now ceiled over. The upper floors of 27 High Street have been converted to a separate flat and were not accessible for survey.