5, High Street

This is a row house with a shop on the ground floor and a former printing works to the rear. It incorporates remnants from the late 16th century, largely dates to the 17th century, and has undergone alterations in the 18th and 19th centuries. The front is constructed of brick, likely on a timber-frame base, with rubble and pantile roofs, and brick stacks.

The front range, with a side entry from a through passage, is double-depth, featuring a generous staircase centrally located in the rear half, and twin hipped roofs behind a parapet. The front portion of this block was likely rebuilt in the late 18th or early 19th century, resulting in high ceilings. A long, rubble and pantile-roofed gabled wing extends to the rear, incorporating a narrow courtyard on the west side and retaining an early 17th-century casement window and a 17th-century staircase.

The exterior presents three storeys and a single wide bay. A simple late 19th-century shop front occupies the ground floor, featuring a central three-light window, a glazed shop door to the left, and a six-panel house door to the right, both with rectangular transom lights and a fascia with a cornice, topped by a shopboard with a segmental arched centre. Above, a shallow canted bay window extends to the full height of the coping, with plain sash windows on each facet on both floors. The rear door to the through passage features Gothic interlace glazing.

The rear wing has three vertical timber lights with horizontal boarded aprons at eaves level, over 2:3:2-light casements to the first floor. At ground floor level, a large six-light stone hollow-mould mullioned and transommed casement with two king mullions, featuring early glass, is located to the left, alongside some sash windows. The gable end has a loading door above a boarded apron. Connected to this is a lower wing with a large central glazed lantern and 15:12:12:15-pane fixed casements, plus a pair of four-vertical-pane lights to its end gable.

Internally, the side passage exhibits early beams in the rear half. The rear half of the front range contains an early 19th-century staircase with a stick balustrade, turned newels, a quarter landing, and a full return landing. The first-floor rear room features a 17th-century door. The front room on the second floor has a series of cupboards with flush four-panel doors. The rear wing contains a painted 17th-century dog-leg staircase with splat balusters and square newels with ball finials. A room adjacent to the front range on the first floor has six lateral stop-chamfered spine beams with run-out stops, a four-centred doorway with a plank door, and two 12-pane sashes overlooking the yard. The central room features an 18th-century fireplace surround with dentils, backing onto a 20th-century fireplace in the front room. The second floor has low-pitched ceilings. A bathroom features a three-light wood casement with ovolo-mould mullions and leading.

The roof is assumed to be a 19th-century rebuild. This building represents an interesting example of early urban development, incorporating remnants from various periods, with minimal alteration since the early 20th century.