Town Tenement

House. 16th century, altered in the 17th century, and probably reduced in the 18th or early 19th century. Minor late 19th century addition. Rendered cob with gable-ended thatched roof. Cob and stone porch with lean-to slate roof and stone rubble outshut at rear, also with a lean-to slate roof. Brick end stack.

The 16th century plan consists of two rooms facing west, with ground falling to the right. A hall with integral end stack is positioned to the right of the front entrance, with an unheated former inner room to the left, divided from the hall by a plank and muntin screen. There was probably formerly a through passage and a service-end room to the right of the hall, since demolished, probably in the 18th or 19th century. The front entrance of the hall, with its porch, was probably inserted when the lower end of the house was demolished. A winder staircase was inserted at the rear of the inner room, probably in the mid to late 17th century. A late 19th century lean-to outshut was added at the rear. An alternative interpretation of the plan would be that the inner room is the former passage and the former service end is incorporated in the neighbouring cottage, No 2 Town Tenement. However, other evidence such as the position of the stack and fall of the land suggests this is unlikely. The building has two storeys with a one-storey outshut.

The asymmetrical front elevation has two windows: two first-floor late 19th and 20th century small-paned two-light wooden casements, a ground-floor 19th century two-light wooden casement to the left, and a central ground-floor early to mid 20th century small-paned window lighting the hall. A doorway to the right has a 19th century plank door and beaded wooden frame, with a lean-to porch featuring side benches inside. A ground-floor wide raking buttress is positioned at the left-hand end of the front wall. The right-hand gable end has two first-floor 20th century two-light wooden casements and a ground-floor 19th century two-light wooden casement to the left.

The interior features a 16th century plank and muntin oak screen between the hall and former inner room, consisting of chamfered muntins with ogee stops, chamfered top rail, and a doorway to the right with a later door showing mason's mitred joints. A line of a former, possibly later, bench remains on the hall side of the screen. The hall has a plastered ceiling and 17th century cupboards in the front and rear walls with panelled doors. A mid to late 17th century L-plan winder staircase has square newel posts with polyhedral finials and a moulded handrail; a small piece of splat baluster remained at the time of survey in January 1988. Two first-floor rooms are divided by a 20th century partition. Old oak floorboards survive, and there is a blocked former window above the porch visible as a recess in the front wall. The unblackened 16th or 17th century two-bay roof has two trusses with straight principals, collars, and trenched purlins. One truss was adzed to take plaster, since removed, and the other truss remains plastered.

The house faces onto a courtyard, probably a former farmyard, opposite No 3 Town Tenement.