11-13, WEST STREET

Two town houses built about 1830 by John Barnes.

The buildings are constructed in brick and sandstone, partly rendered, beneath pitched Cumbrian slate roofs. Both have rectangular plans with rear outshots.

No. 11 has a brick front whilst No. 13 is rendered. Both properties feature four-panelled front doors beneath rectangular fanlights, with plain entablatures to the door cases. Simple moulded window surrounds contain sash windows throughout most of the elevation. Quoins rise to full height at the corner of No. 13 but are present only at the upper storey of No. 11. A simple moulded eaves course carried on a dentilled cornice finishes the front elevation. No. 13 has a brick gable stack whilst No. 11 has a rendered axial ridge stack. The rear elevation is constructed of local red sandstone with plain window surrounds of the same material. The single-storey kitchen outshot to No. 11 has been re-roofed and a modern conservatory lean-to added. Altered single-storey outbuildings are located in the rear yard. The kitchen outshot to No. 13 has been extended and partly-rendered with an extension added to join it to the single-storey range of former outbuildings. All outbuildings and modern rear extensions are of lesser importance.

Both properties follow virtually identical layouts with front entrance into a vestibule then hallway, from which open a front room, staircase, rear room and rear kitchen in the outshot. Stone staircases lead to the first floor and timber steps to the upper floor, where there are bedrooms to front and rear on each level.

No. 11 contains a partly-glazed vestibule door with central frosted glass panel surrounded by stained glass. The hallway features a moulded arch springing from console brackets and a dado. The front ground floor room retains an original door with handle, timber window shutters, decorative Victorian cornicing and a late-Victorian fireplace inserted about 2001. The rear dining room has timber window shutters with metal locking bar, simple cornicing, an early fire surround and an original door with later part-glazed inserts. The kitchen has a vaulted roof and timber boarding to three walls. The Regency staircase features thin balusters and dark wooden handrail ending in a spiral, with a partly-glazed domed skylight above the stairwell. The first floor rear bedroom has been converted into a bathroom retaining original floorboards, wall cupboards, fireplace, fire surround and panelled window surround.

No. 13 features an encaustic-tiled floor in the entrance, lincrusta on the wall to dado height, a stained glass fanlight, and a vestibule door with elaborately patterned central frosted glass panel surrounded by stained glass. The hallway has a dado and exposed original hexagonal floor tiles with a moulded arch springing from console brackets. The front ground floor room retains an original door with modern stained glass panels inserted in its upper half, window shutters, an early fireplace and surround and decorative Victorian cornicing. The rear dining room has an original door, floorboards and moulded cornicing. The staircase matches that in No. 11 with a partly-glazed domed skylight above the stairwell incorporating stained glass. The first floor has original doors and cornicing to both rooms and an early fireplace and surround in the front room. The upper floor bedrooms have original doors. The kitchen has been extended and modernised with a modern extension leading to modern utility rooms in the former rear outbuildings.

Both properties were built as domestic residences and are thought to have been modernised at the same time during the late Victorian period. No. 11 has subsequently served as the home of the provincial artist William Henry Hudless, offices of the local Burial Board, a dental practice, and again as a domestic residence from about 1950 onwards, undergoing minimal structural change but some internal modernisation. No. 13 has had a modern rear kitchen extension added and has been connected by an extension to its formerly separate outhouses, which have also been modernised. Both properties were re-roofed using original slates during the 1980s, with larger roof lights replacing earlier ones and some new roof lights added.