7, Cross Street

This is a house and shop, originally built in 1635 and significantly remodelled in the 18th century, with a later addition at the rear. The walls are a mix of stone and brick, possibly with some underlying timber-framing. The front has hipped, slated roofs, while the rear section has a flat roof. No chimneys are visible from the street.

The building consists of a front block, a back block, and a two-storey link building known as a gallery. The front block is one room wide and two rooms deep, and three storeys high, with a cellar beneath the rear portion. The back block is one room deep and two storeys high. The front has a symmetrical facade with a two-window range, altered in the early to mid-18th century. The ground floor has been altered in the late 20th century. Upper floor windows have eared architraves with triple keyblocks and six-pane sashes, with the upper sashes of the smaller third-floor windows containing only three panes. Flanking the front are giant Doric pilasters, fluted and featuring a triglyphed entablature above each. A modillioned eaves cornice runs across the front, projecting above the pilasters. A stone tablet carved with a quatrefoil and the date 1635, bearing the initials TH, is positioned between the second-floor windows.

The gallery, linking the front and back blocks, is built of brick in the ground and second storeys, with an older roughcast finish above, possibly on a timber frame, featuring barred sashes. The front wall of the back block is similarly finished with roughcast, likely over brick or timber-framing, also with barred sashes in the ground storey.

The interior formerly contained two early 17th-century broad-rib ceilings along with fireplaces and overmantels on the ground and first floors. These features are now located at Stafford Barton, Dolton, and the gatehouse at Shute Barton, east Devon. The ground floor of the front block has been raised, and the second floor has been removed from both the front block and the gallery. While significant alterations have occurred, features of interest may still be hidden within the partitions and outer walls, particularly in the back block which has been less structurally altered. The roof structures are of potential interest but are not easily accessible.

Historically, the house was owned by the Corporation and leased in 1634 to Thomas Horwood, a merchant and the founder of the Church Lane almshouses. He was granted preferential terms, requiring him to spend £200 within five years on constructing the building. A lease from 1648 describes the house as "lately reedified and new built." An agreement of 1635 references Horwood’s plan to build a gallery along the eastern boundary wall. Horwood and his wife, Alice, appear to have lived in the house until their deaths. The freehold was sold in 1916 to redeem Land Tax.