399 AND 400 THE SPA

Nos 399 and 400 The Spa are a pair of attached houses built in the early 19th century. They feature an ashlar front and sides, with rubblestone at the rear, and have a hipped roof made of Welsh slate, along with ashlar and brick stacks. The buildings rise four storeys and have four windows each. The entrance doors are located on the left and right, accessed by stone and brick steps leading to the first floor. Each has a rusticated flat-roofed porch with semi-circular headed doorways, fanlights, and six fielded panelled double doors. The entrance to No 399 includes a wrought iron porch and canopy in addition to the stone porch.

The basement has two 8-pane sash windows and French windows, although the latter is missing from No 399 and is 20th century in No 400. The first floor features rustication with four 8-pane sashes set in semi-elliptical panels. A plat band with a key pattern is present at the second floor, which has four tall 8-pane sashes with wrought iron balconies. The third floor contains four smaller 8-pane sashes. The windows on the second and third floors are separated by grooved pilasters that extend up to the cornice, with a panelled frieze below. There is a blocking course at the top. The left and right returns of the buildings have blind semi-circular rusticated arched windows on the first floor of the porch and oculi on the ground floor. The rear features four sashes with semi-circular headed windows that light the stairs.

The interior of No 400, which was inspected, includes a notable second-floor drawing room with large six-panelled double doors in a grooved case that connect the front and back of the house. This room also has a moulded plaster cornice and high skirting boards. The first-floor rooms have less elaborate plaster cornices. These houses are part of a spa development in Melksham from around 1815, which was short-lived.