39 and 40, New Street

This is a large town house, likely originating in the 17th century with a rear wall dating from that period, but largely rebuilt in the 18th century. The front facade is stuccoed on a timber frame, with a section of painted rubble at ground floor level and rubble to the rear. The roof is steeply pitched with dry slate tiles, hipped on the right side, and features a modillion eaves cornice at the front. There are two lateral rear stacks constructed of rubble and one brick stack. The building has a deep single-depth plan.

The exterior is three storeys high and features a five-window range on the second floor. The first floor has a slightly wider window, presumably replacing two original windows above a former shopfront. Windows on the upper floors are fitted with hornless sashes and are set within moulded architraves. The ground floor retains a moulded entablature and evidence of early or mid-19th century pilastered shopfronts. There is a doorway with panelled reveals and a six-panel door with flush bottom panels to the far left, a blocked doorway to the right of centre, and another doorway towards the right; evidence indicates earlier alterations.

The interior of number 39 contains a fine 18th-century staircase with a closed string, Tuscan newels, and a moulded handrail. A ground-floor room has a dentilled ceiling cornice and a chimney piece with an eared architrave and moulded cornice, both partially obscured by 20th-century plaster. Some 18th-century panelling is visible near the attic staircase. Number 40 features 18th-century ceiling joists, some 18th-century panelling, and oak studwork, potentially reused ship’s timbers. Slatehanging, integrated since the construction of an adjoining warehouse, is visible at the right-hand end of the house. Both properties possess an 18th-century roof structure.

New Street is characterized by a high proportion of fine 17th and 18th-century houses.