72,74,76,78, HIGH STREET

This is a row of four houses, now shops, located on High Street in Knaresborough. The core of the building dates to the early 17th century, but the front was significantly altered in the mid-18th century. The construction combines timber framing with limestone rubble walls, and a Westmorland slate roof. The row presents two storeys and five first-floor windows.

Number 72 features a half-glazed panelled door on the left side and a six-pane bow window on the right. Above the door is a four-pane sash window with a stone lintel. Number 74 mirrors this arrangement with the door on the right and bow window on the left, also with a four-pane sash and stone lintel above. Number 76 has a glazed door on the right and a slightly bowed six-pane window to the left, incorporating a canted bay window with a four-pane sash above. Number 78 exhibits a 20th-century shop front with a central door flanked by plate-glass windows, above which are two small sash windows. A continuous sill band runs along the first-floor windows, interrupted by the bay window of number 76. The eaves of numbers 72, 74 and 76 have been raised. The roof is hipped on the right side, with a brick end stack on the right and a ridge stack above the entrance to number 76.

The interior retains timber framing in both the front and rear walls, with alterations to the window and door openings. Structural elements include principal posts with straight braces, supporting roof trusses with curved struts and side purlins. The roof construction uses common rafters. A survey of numbers 72 to 76 was conducted by the North Yorkshire and Cleveland Vernacular Buildings Study Group, and number 78 was examined at a resurvey, revealing timber framing on the first floor. Historical records, including a 1611 survey referencing four burgages on the site (two and a half built and one and a half unbuilt), further illuminate the building's context.