No. 34 High Street

No. 34 High Street

This is a three-storey, three-bay building of pale orange brick in Flemish bond, with a small attached two-storey rendered cottage to the rear. The structure dates from the medieval period, though it has been substantially altered and extended.

The front elevation features flat gauged brick arches to multi-pane sash windows: 3/6-pane sashes on the second floor and 6/9-pane sashes on the first floor, with tripartite windows to the right on both upper floors. The ground floor contains a 20th-century shop front with a shop door. To the left is a wide segmental-arched recess in gauged brick with moulded stone imposts, containing a gauged flat arch to a former 6/6-pane sash, now replaced with a 20th-century window. A door with a tall semi-circular brick arch is positioned to the right of centre, with a semi-circular overlight above a rectangular one. The east elevation to Mansion House Lane is constructed of red brick in staggered and random Flemish and English bond. Brick stacks rise from the gable ends, and a stack on the right return has a small window at the top. A painted brick advertisement reading 'W. H. Smith. Plowman Trundle. Saddler. travelling and Hand Bags Purses, Dog Collars and Luggage of all descriptions' is covered by a board at first-floor level on the right return. The parapet is 20th-century red brick with stone coping and a narrow cornice returned to the right. The roofs are clay pantile.

The building is double-depth in plan. The ground floor shop to the right extends above a stone cellar accessed by trapdoor, which contains a brick oven. A doorway to the left of the shop leads to a hallway with an office, which has a decorated frieze above a picture rail and a narrow moulded cornice. The hallway continues to an inner hall with a mid-20th-century staircase, a sealed doorway to an adjacent shop, and a flagstone corridor down a single step leading to a rear courtyard. A 20th-century cloakroom to the left contains substantial heavily-moulded beams that are neither chamfered nor stopped, with the cross-beam cutting square where it stops short of the brick wall.

The building's most significant feature is a medieval timber-framed structure exposed on the upper floor. Above the cloakroom is a room approximately 5 metres square containing three evenly-spaced elm cruck trusses across two bays. The trusses have trenched purlins, square-cut rafters, and curved collars. The elm timbers underwent heavy restoration and strengthening in the early 21st century. The south wall is timber-framed with wattle-and-daub infill to the collar, rebuilt in brick above. The north wall stands approximately 41 centimetres beyond the cruck line, which is square-cut on its outer edge, and is constructed in brick except for approximately 1 metre at the bottom, which is stone.

The first floor contains a near full-width room to the south with a cornice, and the Mayor's Parlour to the north above the rear of the shop. The Mayor's Parlour has a plasterwork ceiling of four rectangular medallions with scalloped corners and a cornice. A closed-string staircase rises from the first-floor landing through a well with square balusters and a curved, moulded handrail. Scroll work appears on the strings, with a simple turned newel post topped by an acorn pendant. The stairs are panelled to both sides up to the attic landing. Two attic rooms run the length of the building, divided by wooden partitions, with a gas mantle in the first. The roof comprises 19th-century king post trusses. The internal wall at parapet level is red brick in English bond.

The small cottage attached to the rear is rendered with two window openings to each floor fitted with modern frames. Its upper storey projects forward slightly. The rear exterior walls of both the cottage and No. 34 facing the open courtyard are constructed of rubble stone and brick, overpainted.