Somerset Cottages

Detached house, formerly a semi-detached pair, built in 1888 for William Halliday. The building is constructed of coursed and squared sandstone to the front and coursed rubble elsewhere, with a double pantile roof.

The plan follows a neat double-depth arrangement with straight stairs from the rear and narrow one-storey service wings facing a central yard. The left gable wall is set on a splay, following the line of Guard House Lane as it returns to the High Street.

The exterior comprises two storeys and an attic, with a 1+1 window arrangement, all with four-pane sashes. The attic features high gabled face dormers. At ground-floor level, splayed bays sit beneath a full-width hipped slate roof and canopy. Central four-panel original doors are positioned between the bays, with a richly carved console bracket in 17th-century style between them, bearing inscriptions. Windows are dressed in flush stonework, and both end gables and dormers are coped. Brick stacks with stepped capping sit at each end.

At first-floor level, five small square plaques are set flush, each with a sunk circular centre bearing a carved head in high relief. The figures are thought to represent, from left to right, Gladstone, Edward VII, Queen Victoria, and Queen Alexandra, with the last unidentified.

The right gable is partly covered by a storage building. The left gable has at first-floor level two small sashes in brick surrounds beneath a small cinquefoil light. Between the windows is a stone plaque inscribed "ART IS LONG THAT IS LASTING; LIFE IS SHORT" surrounding "WH 1888" at the centre.

The rear elevation has two four-pane sashes at each level, with a door and sash in each wing. Built-in tablets include a square one with a raised shield and "WH 1861" (though the 1888 gable date appears more likely for the building), flanked by roses on sunk quatrefoils. At the eaves is a tablet with rounded head inscribed "WHA 1673".

The interior retains most original detail. The two halves have been linked by arched openings at each level, but both staircases remain. The ground-floor left room features a fireplace with medieval fragments of bench-ends and cusping as surround, possibly partly from a former reredos. The rear room contains a fine Art Nouveau fireplace with some painted copper detail. The ground-floor right fireplace is cast-iron with guilloche and floral panels and a moulded-edge mantel. Doors are generally plank with blacksmith's fittings. The wooden staircases begin with winders and are contained in matchboard partitions.

A small yard at the rear is enclosed by a high stone wall with a wide central opening, now filled, which formerly gave onto a further yard opening from Guard House Lane.

The building was constructed for William Halliday, a mason and craftsman who also owned the former St Christopher's Inn at 335 High Street (later renamed Somerset Inn) and the stable yard to its rear, connecting through to Somerset Cottages. The cottages were presumably built to house staff for the Inn. Minor conversion work has been undertaken with regard to the house's distinctive character.