Harbour View

Harbour View is originally a merchant's house, later adapted as a shop with accommodation above, and now used as holiday flats. The core of the building dates to approximately 1640, although the front was altered in the mid-to-late 19th century, with more recent 20th-century modernisation and a rear service block added. The construction is mixed, with stone rubble side walls and plastered timber-framed front and back walls. A stone rubble stack is present in the right party wall, featuring a 19th-century plastered brick chimneyshaft. The roof is slate.

The house was built with its end facing the street, resulting in a single-room-wide and two-room-deep layout. A side passage runs along the right party wall, and a newel staircase is located just rear of the centre, set within an alcove in the right party wall.

The exterior is three storeys high with a single-window front, the plasterwork appearing as ashlar. The ground floor features an altered 19th-century timber shop front. A 20th-century part-glazed door is set within the doorway to the former shop and passage, while the shop window to the left has replacement glazing bars. A fascia with brackets at each end sits above the shop front. The first-floor features a canted bay with a front-horned four-pane sash and a modillion cornice to a hipped roof. The second floor has a similarly horned four-pane sash, and a timber modillion eaves cornice extends to the hipped roof. The rear of the building is gabled.

The interior demonstrates good preservation of the 17th-century structure despite later plasterwork. The former ground-floor shop was not inspected, but a plastered beam remains visible in the passage. The newel staircase rises from the ground floor to the first floor around a mast-like timber newel post. Two first-floor rooms are divided by a partition incorporating 17th-century small-field panelling. The front room features ovolo-moulded crossbeams, with exposed scratch-moulded joists, while the rear room has original ornamental plasterwork ceiling; the front bay displays bosses and cast motifs, and the rear bay features a single rib pattern with large angle sprays. The front room’s probable 18th-century timber eared chimneypiece contains a 19th-century grate. The front fireplace on the second floor has a 19th-century chimneypiece and is blocked. While much of the joinery is 19th and 20th century, a 17th-century panelled cupboard door is found on the first floor front, along with at least one 18th-century two-panel door. The roof comprises 17th-century A-frame trusses with pegged dovetail-shaped lap-jointed collars and threaded purlins. A secondary front hip roof exists, but the original rear gable roof structure remains, potentially indicating further 17th-century carpentry below. Surviving 17th-century panelling is concealed within the roofspace behind plasterboard on the crosswall between the second-floor chambers. It is an unusual survival, representing a well-preserved 17th-century merchant's house on the fringe of the main historic town centre.