14-20, MILL STREET

A row of six cottages with a seventh cottage to the rear, dating primarily to the mid-to-late 18th century, although numbers 14 and 15 likely originate from the early 19th century. Number 20 to the rear of number 19 was originally a late 17th-century building, refronted in the late 19th century. The cottages are constructed of coursed limestone rubble with pantile roofs, with gambrel-shaped tiles on numbers 14 and 15. Brick stacks are located on the gable ends and along some party walls. Number 20 has a gabled concrete tile roof with a rear end stack.

The cottages have a double-depth plan at numbers 14 and 15, while numbers 16 to 18 each have a single-unit plan, with later extensions to the rear. Number 20 is a late 17th-century two-room, central-entry plan building, with a large heated room and a smaller service room, accessible via a passage underneath and to the right of number 19. The cottages are two storeys high, with attics, and mostly feature a one-window range, except for numbers 19 and 20, which have a two-window range. Numbers 14 and 15 each have a small gabled dormer window to the front, accompanied by larger 20th-century dormers set within a continuous mansard roof to the rear. Number 14 has a 20th-century door on the right side and 20th-century windows. Number 15 has a 19th-century four-panel door on the left, a 19th-century paired, horned plate-glass sash window to the right, and a 20th-century two-light window on the first floor. Number 16 has 19th-century casement windows: two lights to the first floor and three lights to the ground floor, and a 20th-century door to the right. Number 17 features a 19th-century horned 2/2-pane sash on the first floor, a 20th-century door to the left of a 20th-century window beneath an 18th-century chamfered wooden lintel. Number 18 displays a double-pitched pantile roof covering the front and rear left wing, added later but of a similar date. The front is rendered and incised at ground floor level, and includes a 20th-century two-light casement window on the first floor above a 19th-century tripartite sash window to the left of a late 18th-century frame and six-panel door. Number 19 has brick architraves around horned 2/2-pane sashes, with a stone lintel over a 20th-century door, and a segmental brick arch over the passage door. Number 20 has timber lintels over 19th-century first-floor three-light casements, a central 20th-century door, and flanking casements.

The interior of number 18 includes an open fire in the front room, with an ashlar lintel and jambs within a later stone surround, while the original exposed rubblestone rear wall separates the two rooms. Both rooms have chamfered crossbeams, with the rear wing exhibiting exposed rafters. The front roof has trenched purlins, while the rear wing roof has threaded purlins and a ridge with rafters resting on the ridge. Number 20 was not inspected, but is considered potentially of interest.

Historically, the cottages were reportedly built as housing for millworkers, with the attics originally linked and used for drying wool. They occupy a prominent position close to the Church of St Mary.