38 and 38a, High Street

This is a pair of shops with storage and a flat above, originally probably a single house. The core of the building dates back to the 16th or early 17th century, with remodelling in the 18th century. A rear wing to No.38A was likely added in the 18th or early 19th century. The construction is of rendered walls, with the right-hand gable made of stone rubble and the left-hand gable (likely structurally linked to No.39) of brick. The rear wall of the wing is stone rubble with timber-bonded brick at the top. It has a slate roof, and the rear wing a lean-to roof.

The front of the building is single-depth, now divided into three rooms on the first floor. The rear wing, originally likely two rooms deep, is on the left side. The building is three storeys high. The ground floor has modern shop fronts. The upper floors have sash windows in recessed box frames; these are mid- to late-19th century sashes with horns, now featuring two upright glazing bars in each sash. One ground-floor window on the right was boarded up in 1993. The building has a wooden eaves cornice and an iron gutter decorated with lion-heads.

Inside No.38A, the front shop has a ceiling with old moulded plasterwork, featuring a central wreath likely dating to the early 18th century and an uncertain-dated rectangular reed moulding around the edge. There are heavy plastered beams running from front to back, alongside similar beams in first-floor rooms in both sections of the building. Remnants of an 18th-century moulded plaster cornice are visible in the first-floor front room of No.38A.

The roof has four trusses (two in each section) with short, curved feet at the front. The walls were heightened, making these trusses visible from the second-floor rooms. The trusses have two tiers of through purlins and an angled ridge resting in a slot at the apex; housings remain for former halved collars with shaped ends. Gouged carpenter's marks are present. The rear feet of the trusses are buried in the wall. It was reported that No.38A once had a staircase with an acorn newel post. The roof trusses, with their crucked feet, are rare examples of regional vernacular architecture. Fireplaces, beams, and other features of interest may be concealed behind plaster.