3-6, Market Street

A terrace of four houses, now commercial buildings, was constructed around 1836 as part of a larger development designed to relocate the market from the High Street. The buildings are of Flemish bond red brick with slate roofs concealed behind a parapet, and include axial stacks with corbelled brick shafts. The design is in the Italianate style.

The buildings appear to have been originally designed with a double-depth plan, with each of the four houses being one room wide and featuring an entrance to the left, within a slightly projecting block. The front has an asymmetrical 2:2:2:2-bay arrangement, with a pilaster on the left end and platbands at the first and second floor levels that continue around the pilaster, as is the moulded cornice below the parapet. The left end building is narrower and contains the front door, which has rusticated quoins, panelled reveals, a four-panel door with a fanlight featuring teardrop glazing, and a small-paned casement window above with margin panes. A second floor window has spoke glazing bars. A segmental headed recess surrounds the window in the right-hand bay, which has a twelve-pane segmental-headed sash window with a moulded architrave. The first floor window is a twelve-pane sash with a matching moulded architrave; the second floor window mirrors the one above the front door. Numbers 3 and 4 retain a high degree of original detail. Number 5 has a blocked doorway and lost its fanlight. Number 6 has a replaced door and a plainer fanlight with spoke glazing bars. The interior has not been inspected, but may retain features of interest. The development of the market area is notably well-designed for a small town, and the remaining buildings form an important group.