53 and 53a-d St Thomas Street

A house in a row, now three dwellings, probably dating from the late 15th century, altered and extended in the 17th and 18th centuries, with further alterations during the 20th century. To the rear are two attached cottages of early 19th-century date, modernised in the late 20th century.

The buildings are constructed of local random stone rubble with Doulting stone dressings, beneath a clay pantiled roof with a plain gable to the west end and a coped gable to the east, finished with brick end chimney stacks. The rear wing and attached cottages are also built of stone rubble; the former wing has a pantiled roof and the cottages are covered with double Roman tiles. Gable-end stacks are of stone and brick. The late 20th-century addition to 53d, which incorporates a possible earlier outhouse, is built of stone rubble and part rendered, with a roof covered in double Roman tiles.

The buildings comprise an L-shaped plan consisting of a two-unit through-passage house remodelled in the 17th century, an early to mid-18th-century rear wing of three bays, and a pair of attached early 19th-century cottages (53c and d) built against the north gable end of the wing. The through-passage house has been subdivided into two dwellings (53 and 53a St Thomas Street) which share the passage, and the first bay of the rear wing forms part of the left-hand house (53). The remaining two bays of the wing are a separate dwelling (53b).

The principal house (53 and 53a) has two storeys and attics with a three-bay front facing south onto the road. It features a heavy stone plinth with a chamfered top, continuing along part of the east elevation. The slightly off-centre entrance has a chamfered, four-centred stone surround with a 20th-century half-glazed door, accessed by two stone steps. The outer ground-floor bays contain sixteen-pane sash windows under timber lintels. The first floor has three ovolo-moulded stone mullioned windows with labels: the window to bay one has four lights, whilst those to the centre and right-hand end have three lights. Straight joints from earlier openings are visible either side of the ground-floor windows, to the left of upper bay two, and to the right of upper bay three. The east gable end, previously rendered, has an inserted 20th-century doorway and a small blocked window with a timber frame under the original eaves line. The rear elevation includes several additions of various dates: a former outshut to the left, now raised to two storeys; a narrow addition under a catslide; and a lean-to extension, formerly a wood store. The rear entrance to the through passage has a 17th-century scratch-moulded plank door in an ovolo-moulded timber frame, although both may have been re-sited. At the west end of the rear elevation stands the former rear wing. Its left-hand bay (part of 53), partly obscured by additions to the rear elevation of the house, has a modern door to the ground floor and a uPVC window above. The east elevation of the other two bays (53b) has a central entrance with a late 20th-century door to the left-hand bay and timber three-light windows to either side, all under timber lintels, with two matching windows at first floor. The two cottages to the north of the wing each originally had a central entrance flanked by a window, though the principal entrance to No.53d is now through the late 20th-century extension. To the first floor of 53c are two single-light windows; those to No.53d are of one and two lights, all with uPVC frames under timber or cement lintels.

The through passage has half-panelled walls and a flagged floor which rises via three steps to the rear door, with three doorways leading off it, including an early 18th-century door. Nos.53 and 53a St Thomas Street were not inspected but are described in a survey by the Somerset Vernacular Architecture Group in 1980. No.53, to the left (west) of the passage, is understood to have a 17th-century fireplace with a depressed, four-centred arched surround with incised spandrels to its principal room. This fireplace has a rectangular brick fireback arranged in a herringbone pattern with a surround of plain bricks and decorative scrolls to the upper corners. A similar, but smaller surround exists to the fireplace in the room above. The stairs rise in the recess between the fireplace and the north wall. A doorway in the north wall leads through to the southernmost bay of the rear wing (part of 53), which has two ovolo-moulded axial ceiling beams, possibly later insertions, each carrying the markings for a cross beam that is no longer extant. To the right of the passage, the principal ground-floor room in 53a has a large fireplace with a chamfered lintel and an unchamfered transverse beam. In the north wall is an inserted stair with 17th-century balusters that are pierced and diagonally moulded. The first floor has two ovolo-moulded doorframes, one with a scratch-moulded door. The roof to the original building (53 and 53a) is considered to be 17th-century and has straight principals with slightly-cambered tenoned collars, chamfered purlins and a tenoned ridge piece, while the roof of the 18th-century rear wing has straight principals with substantial lapped collars and two rows of purlins. No.53b was not inspected internally (February 2014) but is understood to retain an open fireplace and two ceiling beams to the ground floor and a fireplace with a cast-iron grate upstairs. The left-hand cottage (53c) has an open fireplace with a segmental-arched brick lintel in the sitting room and a similar, but smaller fireplace to one of the bedrooms. In its rear (west) wall is a re-sited lancet window with pointed head and stone chamfered surround. The adjacent cottage (53d) has a fireplace with brick lintel to its principal ground-floor room, and its roof comprises straight principal rafters and a single row of staggered purlins. The roof timbers of 53c are not exposed but are considered to be of the same construction as those in 53d.

To the rear of 53 and 53a St Thomas Street is a one-and-a-half storey outbuilding of stone rubble with a pantiled roof. It has a lean-to addition on its west elevation and a further lean-to has been built against this. It was not inspected internally (February 2014).