74 And 74A, High Street

This large house, now occupied as shops with flats above and at the rear, dates to the early 17th century, although it may be even older. It was substantially remodelled and likely enlarged in the 18th and early to mid-19th centuries. The front facade is rendered with a hipped tiled roof. The building plan features a double-fronted, double-depth front range with a central through-passage. Upper storeys comprise three rooms, with the front and back rooms separated by a thick wall containing chimneys - likely the original back wall, indicating a later doubling in depth during the 18th and 19th centuries. A courtyard at the rear, largely filled in by a late 20th-century single-storey building, contains left and rear ranges potentially dating back to the 18th century or earlier and a short projection that may be the remnant of a former right-hand range.

The three-storey front facade has a three-window range. The ground floor contains 20th-century shop fronts, but remnants of early to mid-19th-century render with horizontal channelling survive at the left-hand end and to the left of the house door, along with a raised band above the channelling. The house door, of the same date, is six-panelled, with the two lower panels flush and the upper two now glazed, set within deep panelled reveals and a moulded architrave. Upper-storey windows are barred sashes, with the exception of a late 19th-century bay window on the right-hand end of the second storey. The outer windows are wider, with two sashes each, all featuring six panes, except for the three-paned upper sashes on the third storey. The two left-hand second-storey windows have raised cement voussoirs and keyblocks with bevelled edges. The bay window has three lights, with curved outer sashes and a central sash with margin panes, topped by an entablature with a panelled frieze and a bracketed eaves cornice.

The rear wall and courtyard ranges have barred sash windows, and one rear window is flush-framed. The interior shop areas have been altered, but the through-passage retains a door with six ovolo-moulded panels. A 19th-century dog-leg staircase with turned newels and balusters is located to the left of this door, between the shop and the back room. Second-storey rooms in the front range have 19th-century panelled doors and one 18th-century door, with six ovolo-moulded panels and shaped raised centres. A high-quality, early 17th-century ceiling with broad enriched ribs and flowers in the panels is found in the right-hand front room. Third-storey rooms feature two 18th-century two-panelled ovolo-moulded doors with strap-hinges, and another six-panelled door with shaped raised centres. The rear range of the building (part of No. 74) contains an old roof with collars halved and pegged to the principal rafters. Hidden behind plaster, other early features may exist throughout the building.