Cardynham

Cardynham is a large house situated on a corner at the end of a row, now incorporating a shop. The building dates to the 16th and 17th centuries. It is constructed of limestone ashlar with stone slate roofs. The house has an L-plan configuration, displaying two gables facing The Cross and three gables returning to St Mary's Street. Remains of 16th-century work are present within, but the frontages are of 17th-century design.

The section fronting The Cross is two storeys and an attic, with a partial cellar to the right. The ground floor features a good 19th-century bowed double-fronted shop front, with 20-paned windows flanking a part-glazed door. To the right is a 16-pane sash window set on a stone cill. Above these is a string course that is cut short on the left end. The first floor has four paired two-light, ovolo-moulded stone-mullioned casement windows beneath a continuous string course, each gable displaying a similar two-light casement beneath a stopped hood. Window frames have iron casements with a single horizontal glazing bar. The gables have saddle-back copings. The facade to St Mary’s Street displays three gables, two with plain copings, and a third, part of the main front, with a saddle-back coping. This section carries a tall stone stack with capping set diagonally. A stack raised in concrete block to a moulded capping is present on the middle gable. The left-hand gable unit has a 20th-century loading door in a former window opening, with a two-light stone mullioned casement beneath a hood, and a small access hatch to the right. The middle unit has an oculus and a small single light leading to the stair, along with a wide part-glazed door in a former window opening, set within a chamfer-mullion two-light window with a hood. The right-hand gable has a nine-pane casement at ground floor beneath two single-light ovolo-moulded casements with Gothic leading and a continuous string course. Between the gables is a lead-covered dormer. The plinth steps down at a straight joint between the two parts to the right.

The cellar includes very heavy chamfered beams supported by later cast iron columns, accessible by a stone stair, and a 17th-century ventilated doorway to a further inner cellar. On the ground floor at the rear, there is a large 16th or early 17th-century moulded stone fire opening with a bressummer over, two large corbels and a bread oven. One very heavy chamfered beam is also present. The staircase is 17th century with turned balusters. One corner bedroom has a heavy chamfered beam. Various 18th and 19th-century doors are incorporated throughout, and one attic fireplace has a cambered head. The roof structure of the front block appears to be largely original, with very heavy principals. The building occupies a prime position in the town centre and its quality reflects its social and economic significance.