7 and 9 New Street and outbuildings

Two houses, formerly a single building of 17th-century date with later remodelling and 20th-century alterations, together with part of courtyard outbuildings to the rear.

The building is constructed of rendered granite stone rubble with large boulders in the footings on the front and under the building. It has granite and brick stacks, and the roof is covered in slate, though it was formerly thatched. There are brick alterations and minor additions throughout. The plank and muntin screens to the through passage and other joinery are of oak. Interior walls and ceilings appear to be plastered using traditional materials.

The two cottages were probably built as a single house on a three-room-and-through-passage plan, running along the street and facing south-east. Both cottages are accessed via the through passage. Number 7 has an axial stack to the end wall and a service wing to the rear. Number 9 comprises the equivalent of a medieval hall and inner room. The hall has an axial stack at the south end backing onto the inner room (now a kitchen) and a newel stair turret projects from the rear wall. It is of two storeys with the roof running parallel with the street between the adjoining properties. A rear courtyard is formed by adjoining outbuildings, of which only those to the north of the plot are included in the listing.

The irregular six-window road front has 19th and 20th-century casements with glazing bars. The front passage doorway is set to the right of centre and contains a 20th-century plank door in a frame narrower than the original. The rear passage doorframe is original with some repair and is painted. At the right end of the rear elevation the stair turret is rubble to the lower half and rebuilt in brick above. There is brick infill and rendering to the upper floor of the main rear elevation. The ridge stack to number 7 is rendered and set within a tall, coped verge. Number 9 has a red brick ridge stack. The courtyard elevation of the service wing to number 7 is brick with a 20th-century door and window below a corrugated metal-covered steeply-pitched roof.

Internally, both sides of the through passage are lined by oak plank-and-muntin screens with muntin edges given shallow ogee mouldings. The lower side contains a 20th-century doorway to number 7, but an earlier doorway to the right has been planked over. The ground floor of number 7 is laid with concrete and has a granite fireplace, a timber window seat in the front wall, and a chamfered crossbeam with runout stops. On the first floor, the feet of the roof trusses sit below the ceilings. Room divisions have 20th-century match boarding and incorporate the roof truss tie beams. There are two rooms over the through passage; the bedroom has traces of former openings to the adjacent room in number 9. The two-bay rear service range has a kitchen bay and a lofted west end with a pegged oak roof structure with lapped apexes to the trusses and curved collars. The east wall is rubble stone with cob above. To the west end, the roof turns the corner to align with the adjacent outbuilding, and there is a wide braced and ledged plank door. There are unfinished rubble stone walls to wallplate height, in which the roof principals are set, together with additional secondary timbers including some braces. The loft has machine-sawn joists and boards and is accessed by a ladder.

The upper passage doorway to number 9 is 17th-century and unaltered, with a chamfered surround and scroll-double nick stops. In the hall, the oak bressumer of the granite fireplace and the crossbeam are both soffit-chamfered with bar-scroll stops. To the left of the fireplace an inserted stop-chamfered beam indicates a former door to the inner room that is now sealed. The doorway to the right side of the inglenook is like that from the passage, with scroll-double nick stops, and its plank door, like some others in the house, has strap hinges and is likely of 17th-century date. The end wall of the inner room (kitchen) has an almost full-width bressumer above the opening to a former inglenook fireplace. The left end of the bressumer is set within the masonry of a former bread oven. In the back wall is a sealed door to the rear courtyard and privy. The ceiling is boarded and other ceilings and walls across the house have early plaster. The timber newel stair has been truncated at the first floor and has a light chamfer to the newel. The feet of the roof principals sit in the wall below the ceiling levels on the first floor, and there is the suggestion of earlier fabric around the bedroom doorframes.

The six-bay roof has 17th-century A-frame trusses with pegged lap-jointed collars, and at least one has an applied yoke at the apex. Some trusses have been strengthened with additional timber principals, and the roof has been raised slightly under a 20th-century replacement structure.

The rear outbuilding attached to number 7 New Street is on a north-south orientation, forming a courtyard behind number 9 New Street. The lofted north end, in the ownership and use of number 9, is constructed of hand-sawn joists of large scantling supporting floorboards, and a jointed truss above with a collar with long pegs. The other roof principals are machine-sawn and continue to the other end of the building (not listed), beyond a plank partition. There is a brick privy with a corrugated sheet roof at the south end of the courtyard.