10-16 Market Place

This is a terrace of seven late-18th century shops, originally with living accommodation above, and accompanied by rear ranges. The buildings have been altered in the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. Constructed of fair-faced brown brick with pitched slate roofs, the terrace fronts onto the Market Place between James Street and New Lane. Number 10 is noticeably taller and has higher floor levels than the others.

Each building has a rectangular plan and comprises three storeys. The ground floors are occupied by shops, with a variety of shopfront styles. Number 11 features a mid- to late-19th century shop window with low glazed brick stalls, arcaded glazing bars to the clerestory, a cornice with guttae and modillions, and a panelled door with a blind fanlight; the central window occupies a former doorway. Numbers 12 and 13 have modern, opposed canted shopfronts framing a pedestrian passageway, beneath a concrete fascia bearing the words ‘MARKET CROSS’ and ‘SHOPPING CENTRE’ supported by a plain concrete pillar. The remaining shopfronts are modern with varying styles of pilasters, cornices, and console brackets; number 16’s brackets are particularly elaborate, featuring hood mouldings, while number 14 retains its original moulded cornice. Front doors at numbers 11, 14, and 15 are positioned to the right-hand side.

The first-floor front elevations have a mix of two-light, horned sash windows and 12-light and plain sash windows, all with painted flat lintels, set against a continuous sill band. The second floor has similarly mixed windows of a smaller size. Number 10 has a gabled roof with a timber modillion eaves cornice and rainwater gutter. The other properties have slate-clad, pitched roofs with brick chimney stacks and obscured gutters, concealed behind a brick parapet with flat ashlar copings, and drained by four shared cast-iron rainwater down pipes. Number 16 has a raised roof verge built against the gable of the adjacent property. Faded painted shop sign panels are visible on the brick walls of numbers 13, 15, and 16, but are illegible.