2, Back Of Avon

No. 2 Back of Avon is an early 18th-century house, reputedly built in 1712. It features Flemish bond brickwork and tile roofs, with rendered lateral stacks. The house is tall and has twin gables, a through passage to the right, and a gabled extension at the back. It has three storeys and a basement, with three windows. The windows include 12-pane sashes in exposed boxes with segmental heads, while the second floor has 2-light casements, all set on brick cills. To the right, there is a panelled door leading to the side passage, and the main panelled entry door is located on the left, halfway along the front.

The front has two wood lintels above former cellar openings, a three-course brick band above the first-floor windows, and small oculi in each of the steep-pitched gables. The left return wall is set forward from the adjacent property and features small 6-pane fixed lights at three levels in the rendered wall. A brick stack is located on the left wall. The rear extension is constructed with brick-nogged timber framing, and there is considerable timber framing within the property, including a partition to the through passage.

Inside, the ground floor has a rebuilt bressumer fire, while the first floor boasts a good early 18th-century shouldered ovolo-mould wood fire surround in a full-width room. The top floor left has a lofty fireplace with a moulded architrave and mantel, featuring a brick inset with bars. There are various 18th or 19th-century wide plank and batten doors, some with early hinges. The staircase runs transversely across the back, connecting the ground floor room to the top winders, with additional winders at both the top and bottom of the upper flight. The rear kitchen wing includes a heavy cross beam, a rear casement window with vertical bars internally, and a 19th-century iron cooking grate. The first-floor room in the main block has a central beam, and there is a blocked former window at the back of the top floor. This building is unusually well-preserved and is likely linked to water-borne activities on the nearby waterway serving Abbey Mill.