56-60 High Street

This property comprises two houses originating from an early 16th-century hall house with a cross wing. The building underwent alterations and extensions in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, and again in the early 18th century. It was probably converted to three cottages in the 19th century but now (2014) consists of two dwellings.

The buildings are constructed with square-panelled timber framing and later brick infilling to the hall range and part of the cross wing. The north-west elevation of the hall range and the south-east and rear elevations of the wing are built of random stone rubble. The roof is slate, originally thatched, and is half-hipped at its north-west end. The chimneystacks are of brick and stone, with upper parts that have been rebuilt.

The property has an L-shaped plan comprising a four-bay hall range, formerly one storey, with a two-storey cross wing also of four bays at the south-east end. Single-storey lean-tos were added to the rear probably in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

The house stands on a dressed stone plinth with short buttresses to the cross wing. The roadside north-east frontage of the hall range (Nos.56-58) has a plank door with two two-light casements to the right and one to the left. A change in the brickwork and timber scantling around the left-hand window may mark the position of a former tall hall window. To the first floor are two half-gabled dormers with two-light casements. The gabled front (north-east) of the cross wing (No.60) projects forwards and has a 19th-century entrance with plank door and fixed-light window to its right return. The gabled front has a two-light casement to the ground floor and a jettied and rendered upper floor with a two-light casement. The barge boards, some restored, are carved with quatrefoils. The left return of the wing, rebuilt in stone around 1700, has a gabled stone and brick stack, and two-light mullioned casements with hollow chamfered mouldings to both floors. The rear elevation of the wing is gabled. To the ground floor is a lean-to timber extension of around 1925 under corrugated sheeting with a side entrance, and there is a mullioned casement with hollow chamfered mouldings at first floor. The rear of the hall range has a rendered single-storey lean-to containing two doorways and two timber windows under a pantile roof. To the far right of the upper floor is a full-gabled dormer with a two-light mullioned casement, also hollow chamfered, and there are two small casement windows further to the left. The north-west gable wall of the hall range is built of rubble stone with dressed quoins. The ground has an entrance with a plank door and a small timber window under a stone lintel.

The interior of the former hall range was not inspected in 2014. However, it is understood that the left-hand ground-floor room contains a large stone fireplace with a four-centred arch, deep cambered mouldings and chamfered jambs with stops, and a bread oven. There is a large chamfered ceiling beam and the exposed ends of the joists to the wing's internal jetty are visible. The central room contains a later brick fireplace. The roof timbers are said to include arch-braced principal rafters and may be smoke blackened.

The ground floor of the cross wing, formerly two rooms, has heavily moulded ceiling beams and exposed square-sectioned joists (some modern replacements) with broad floor boards above. In the western half of the room, the joists rest on a large timber beam and project slightly into the adjacent former hall range to form an internal jetty to the upper floor of the wing. A rebate in the beam marks the position of a former doorway. Below the jetty is brick infill. Other ground-floor features include a stone bolection-moulded fireplace and a moulded cornice, both of around 1700, and the remains of painted wall decoration, probably of the late 16th to early 17th century, which was recently uncovered (2014) on the front-facing internal wall. To the rear is a 19th-century wooden door with strap hinges which leads through to the early 20th-century lean-to. A 17th-century elm staircase leads up to the first floor. The plank door at the foot of the stairs, temporarily removed at the time of inspection in 2014, has round-ended hinges and the door surround has bead mouldings. The understairs cupboard is enclosed by bead-moulded planks and has a plank door with cockshead hinges and a timber fingerhold handle.

Upstairs, between the two central bays, is a framed former lime-washed wattle and daub partition wall with a narrow two-centred arched doorway to the left-hand end; the timber door has wainscot panelling and cockshead hinges. The front bedroom has a stone fireplace with bolection mouldings and a moulded cornice. The roof comprises principal rafters of arch-braced jointed crucks with collars, large chamfered purlins and curved windbraces; one of the rafters has the remains of a closing truss.