1-4, EASON'S YARD

Eason's Yard consists of four former cottages, originally known as Nos. 19 and 21 Higher Market Street. This building dates back to the 16th century, with parts rebuilt in the late 17th century and again during the 1980s. The structure features granite and killas rubble walls, with some granite dressings, including a 16th-century doorway and stair window, as well as reused 17th-century window fragments. It has a steep dry slate roof and a single-depth plan with a semicircular rear stair projection located to the right of center. The building is two stories high and has an irregular seven-window range.

Notable features include two reused late 17th-century three-light wooden mullioned windows on the first floor of No. 1, which have 20th-century leaded lights over 20th-century copies. The other windows are 20th-century casements with glazing bars, including those fitted to the approximately central original two-centred arched chamfered doorway. The rear of the building has an original ogee-headed stair window, which still shows sockets for former iron crossed bars.

Inside, many interesting structural details were stripped away during 20th-century renovations, including 17th-century ceiling beams and a chestnut pegged roof structure, as well as parts of the 16th-century purlins and morticed cranked collars. Some of this original structure survives at the right-hand (north) end, along with much of the original moulded oak beam and joist structure, including a beam and some joists salvaged around 1980 and reused in 1987. An arched fireplace was relocated to the ground floor during the same renovations, and the wooden winder stair was repaired. Eason's Yard was formerly the rear wing of Nos. 19 and 21 Higher Market Street.