19-22 Abbey Yard

19-22 Abbey Yard is a terrace of four former workers’ cottages built in the early 19th century, with alterations made in the 20th century.

The cottages are constructed from hand-made red brick, featuring a rebuilt gable made of common brick, and the roof is covered with replacement clay pantiles. The terrace is aligned east-west and consists of four one-bay, two-storey cottages built in English Garden Wall bond brickwork. The orange-coloured brickwork of the east gable of number 19 is quoined into the front and rear walls.

At the front, each cottage has a door on the right side with a four-pane oblong fanlight (which is overboarded at number 20 and painted elsewhere), and on the left side, there is a sash window without horns or glazing bars. The first floor of each cottage features a 16-pane sash window, some of which retain historic glass, set in a moulded frame. All windows are equipped with painted projecting stone sills and wedge lintels. Some render has been applied at the base of the walls. The cottages have ogee cast-iron gutters, with downpipes serving the three left-hand cottages, and the ridge is finished with half-round clay tiles.

The east wall is primarily made of late-20th century common bricks, with late-19th century fair-faced bricks at the right-hand angle and in the gable. The verges have mortar fillets. The gable features a lead-dressed flat apex, with a set-back ridge stack made of fair-faced bricks above a rendered plinth, topped with three terracotta chimney pots.

The rear of the cottages resembles the front, except the back doors are in reversed positions and are flanked by small rectangular windows, which are mostly overboarded. The first-floor windows at the back are Yorkshire sliding sashes, with a mix of eight and twelve panes. All openings have segmental brick lintels but lack sills.