12, 16 AND 18, HIGH STREET

12, 16, and 18 High Street are two houses and shops in a row, with a third dwelling set back in a narrow courtyard. They date from the late 17th century or early 18th century but have been significantly altered in the 19th century. The buildings have a smooth rendered finish and feature a cornice with modillions at the eaves. No 18 has some timber framework and painted brickwork, with raised quoins at the first floor. The gables are coped with concrete tiles, and the ridge of the return wing of No 18 rises above the main cross ridge. There are remains of a large stone stack in the courtyard. Behind No 18, there is a two-storey exotic early 19th-century veranda with a flat-topped gable featuring incised decoration. The veranda has a central umbrella hood supported by four slender wrought-iron columns, with a balustrade above a deep entablature carried on 'Egyptian' columns with impost blocks. The back wall of the lower veranda has two sash windows flanking a 20th-century door. The street front is 2½ storeys high, with three hipped dormers above five cross-mullioned plain glass casements, where the mullions and transoms are flush with the outer wall. To the left, there is a canted sunk plate glass shop front from the 19th century, and to the right, a late 20th-century shop front with a central door featuring an elliptical head and a large glass upper panel, with fielded panels below. There is a central through-way leading to the courtyard. No 16 is set back and includes a good six-panel door in a heavy plain surround with a dentilled cornice, along with another through-way leading down steps at the bottom right. Inside No 18, at the top of the steps, there is a wide and heavy plank door in a moulded surround. Although the front of the property has been heavily modified, the original forms remain, and the entire group has significant architectural interest.