97, High Street

No. 97 High Street is a house that has been converted into a shop and storerooms. It dates from the mid-18th century, with a 20th-century addition at the rear. The building is constructed of brick in Flemish bond at the front and back, with stone dressings at the front. The front is painted, while the back features exposed red brick. It has a hipped roof covered with slate and a red-brick chimney on the left side wall.

The ground floor has been gutted for shop use. Originally, the layout consisted of a single room at the front and back, with a small dogleg staircase in the center; to the left of the staircase is a closet. Many of the rooms have been subdivided in the 19th century. The building has three storeys with a roof garret, while the 20th-century addition is single-storeyed.

The front facade has a three-window range. The late 20th-century shop front on the ground floor rises to the cills of the second-storey windows. The upper storeys feature windows with segmental gauged arches and large keystones carved with grotesque masks. The windows have flush frames with barred sashes, except for a 19th-century French window in the middle of the second storey, which has five full panes with margin panes in each leaf. The second-storey sashes have six panes above and nine below, while the third-storey sashes are eight-paned. The second storey is flanked by brick pilasters with stone capitals, and there is a pulvinated frieze above each. A moulded stone cornice at cill level on the third storey breaks forward over the pilasters. Additional pilasters flank the third storey, rising above the eaves to support large urns, with a swept parapet between them. There is also a dormer window with slate-hung sides.

The rear wall has windows with segmental brick arches and six-pane sashes in flush frames. The middle third-storey window has been blocked up, along with the lower parts of the window to the left and both second-storey windows. A 20th-century doorway has been inserted to the left of the second storey, and there is a dormer window.

Inside, the first floor features a decorated plaster ceiling from probably the mid to late 18th century, adorned with a seed husk motif and ribbon knots. The ceiling above the former staircase has a moulded plaster cornice dating from around 1700.