20 Fore Street

Former open-hall house probably built in the late C16 or early C17; remodelled and re-fronted in the C19. Later alterations.

MATERIALS: built of cob and stone, covered in render. The roofs are covered with slate tiles. Brick gable-end chimney stacks.

EXTERIOR: the three-storey principal elevation is a C19 re-fronting of a late-C16 or early-C17 house, and is arranged as two bays with a pitched roof and gable-end chimney stacks. The frontage is framed by decorative timber pilasters and a deeply overhanging eaves cornice with concave coving beneath. To the first floor is a timber plat band with guttae detailing, and across the width of the ground floor is a clay-tiled pentice roof, with a moulded fascia beneath that incorporates a continuous series of guttae. To the ground floor are three doorways, with transom lights above, separated by two, square bay windows of plate glass with leaded transom lights. The first-floor oriel windows, supported on timber brackets, are beneath pentice roofs and have casement windows of plate glass with three-light leaded windows above. To the second floor are two, eight-over-eight hornless sash windows with moulded architraves and hoods incorporated into the coving.

The side elevation retains a late-C16 or early-C17 square-headed, ovolo-moulded door frame with a later six-panel door. There is an eight-over-eight hornless sash window to its left.

INTERIOR: retains late-C16 or early-C17 fixtures and fittings including a fireplace with splayed stone jambs and timber bressummer incorporating an apotropaic mark; a timber plank and muntin screen; ceiling beams with cyma reversa moulding and step hollow stops; and a winder staircase. The roof has three king-post roof trusses with diagonally jointed principal rafters that are morticed and side-pegged with a notch for the ridge-piece. There is evidence of smoke blackening to the truss in the north wall, later infilled with wattle and daub.