Chain House

This is a house in a row, dating to the early 18th century, with earlier cottages incorporated behind. The front elevation is constructed of coursed rubble with a slate roof. It represents a good example of a street frontage block, featuring a deep and narrow rear wing which may have been built on the site of earlier cottages.

The street frontage is two storeys and has an attic, with four windows. These are good quality 12-pane sashes, set within voussoirs featuring projecting painted keystones and bull-nose stone cills. A 6-panel fielded door, with a glazed overlight in a moulded architrave, is positioned in the second bay, and is covered by a flat, cantilevered canopy with a moulded edge. Four pedimented dormers top the attic, each containing a 9-pane sash. The front features a plinth, a flat mid string course, and a modillion wood cornice concealing a gutter. Decorative hopper heads are attached to the lead downpipes, and brick stacks are present on each gable.

The long rear wing extends over two storeys, with the upper level clad in slate. It has a varied fenestration pattern with 4:12:4:12:24-pane sashes above a 6-panel door, an arched casement window with Y-tracery, a large 4-light sash, a further door, and two sashes. The left gable has a rounded corner and several pigeon openings. The rear of the wing showcases a central, very broad eaves stack projecting to the roof slope.

Inside, the ground floor room on the left has an 18th-century fireplace surround with egg and dart embellishment, rococo scrolls, and an overmantel decorated with three masks. The room to the right exhibits fielded panelling, a modillion cornice, and a fireplace with unusual Ionic ‘consoles’, a dentil-moulded mantel shelf, and a good door. The main staircase is a dog-leg design, with three hoisted balusters per tread. On the first floor, the back room features a recess with thistle and lion head brackets; a similar recess is found in the front room on the left, along with a bolection-moulded fireplace surround. The front room on the right contains a good 18th-century fireplace surround with an eared architrave. The rear wing contains a 17th-century A-frame roof structure, wide floorboards, many contemporary (18th-century) doors, a second staircase enclosed within panelling, and an 18th-century cupboard with small-paned doors. One room has a moulded overmantel with a keystone.

The house is believed to have been an important clothier’s house. Its name is said to derive from chains that once ran along the front, thought to mark the spot where tolls were collected on market days.