30 Westgate Street

Built in the mid-C17 as a shop with accommodation above. Altered and extended in the C19 and C20. The mid- to late-C20 addition to the rear of the building is excluded.

MATERIALS: an oak timber-framed building. The jettied front has been modified and rebuilt and is clad in plywood sheeting. The timber frame has been reconstructed in part and has been structurally reinforced with a steel frame at first-floor level, with additional metal stirrup bracing to some of the timbers. The pitched roof has been recovered in pantiles. The mid-C19 rear range is of yellow brick laid in Flemish bond.

PLAN: the mid-C17 part of the building forms the front range and includes the front half of the side passage to the right. To the rear is an off-centre stair turret. Beyond the C17 range is a two-storey, mid-C19 addition, and a mid- to late-C19 single-storey extension to the side passage; its glazed roof has been removed.

EXTERIOR: of three storeys, with attic. The principal elevation has a late-C20 glazed shopfront, with a rebuilt jettied first floor which continues up to the roofline. There are three mid-C20, plate glass, horned sash windows to the first and second floor, with a small sash to the gable; all within mid-C19 timber architraves. The rear elevation of the C17 building includes an inserted C18-style six-over-six sash window to the stair turret and to the rear wall to the left. The ground and first floor of the rear elevation are obscured by C19 extensions.

INTERIOR: the ground floor has been opened up to provide a single shop unit with a partition wall re-inserted between it and the side passage. The egg and dart cornice to the ground floor was probably added in the early C20. The winder staircase rises from the first floor to the attic, with the ground floor section having been removed. The treads have been replaced in the C20, along with the balustrade at attic level, although it retains part of its C17 newel post, and timber boards to the stair turret walls. There is a section of a late C19 sanitary wallpaper to the boards between the first and second floors. To the first, second, and attic floor is C17 timber framing including a cross-axial chamfered beam with step stops, and a post with mortice holes which provides possible evidence for an oriel window to the first floor. There is also a significant proportion of late-C20 oak framing and a substantial steel frame inserted at first-floor level. The roof structure retains two C17 roof trusses with principal rafters, collars, yokes, and the ridge purlin above, with some remaining common rafters. The two end trusses were rebuilt in the late C20.