43, West Borough

This is an 18th-century building, likely with earlier origins. It is constructed of brick with a brick dentil cornice at the eaves and a platband at the first floor level. The roof is tiled, with brick copings to the gables, and there are brick stacks. The walls above the first-floor window heads project slightly. The building is two storeys and attics, with a single-storey section to the south, now a garage.

The central entrance has a six-panel door with a flat hood supported by console brackets. The ground floor has two double-hung sash windows with vertical glazing bars only. The first floor has three similar windows. Two dormers with hipped roofs and casements with lead lights are in the attic. The single-storey section to the south has brick walls and a tiled roof, with timber garage doors.

Inside, the northern front ground floor room features a raised panel dado and an 18th-century fireplace surround with semi-circular recesses on either side containing arched heads and shaped shelves. The south room, originally the kitchen, has a large fireplace, partly infilled to accommodate a 19th-century interior. The moulded surround appears 18th century, but behind it is an earlier opening with a chamfered timber lintol. A late 18th-century staircase has a closed string with moulded balusters and handrail.

At the rear, the northern rooms on both the ground and first floors are on a lower mezzanine level. The rear roof slope continues over these rooms as a catslide. The two front rooms on the first floor have some 18th-century panelling. In the attics, the northern room has a section partitioned off at the rear. This partitioned area extends down to the lower first floor level, forming what is described as a “secret” room. A small trap door in the party wall connects this room to the roof space of the adjacent property, number 45. It has been suggested that this feature may be associated with a former connection to Gulliver, a noted Dorset smuggler who once owned number 45.

A single-storey outbuilding at the rear of the house, contemporary with the main building, features brick walls and a tiled roof and contains a fireplace, possibly indicating a former bakehouse or brewhouse.