23, Market Place

This is a late 15th-century house with a shop, built around 1453 as part of the “New Works” commissioned by Bishop Bekynton. It was altered in the 19th century. The exterior is ashlar stone, colourwashed, with a Welsh slate roof hidden behind a parapet and a brick chimney stack.

The building is three stories and a single bay wide. The ground floor features a very fine, mid-19th century projecting shop front shared with the adjacent property at No. 21. The shop front has two-light display windows over a stall riser with ornamental cast-iron vents, panelled pilasters, cast-iron mullions, a shallow fascia and cornice with a shop blind on console brackets. The detailing continues across the front of the building, with a glazed door and a semicircular radially glazed fanlight. The upper floors appear to have lost their former bay windows; the first floor has a composite sash window with 18 panes over 36 panes over 18 panes in plain reveals, and the second floor has a 2-light casement window with 8 panes. Traces of original medieval mouldings are visible, including a rake above the doorway and a string course beneath the parapet, pierced by the second-floor window. There is also a medieval downpipe with a hopper-head. A stack with a raised and coped verge is situated on the left side.

The ground floor interior was remodelled in the 20th century, but a chamfered stone 4-centred doorway remains in the rear wall, alongside a glass panel revealing a lower watercourse. An early 18th-century staircase with turned balusters (though alternate balusters have been removed) and capped newels leads to the first floor. A dado rail runs along the wall, with a swept and wreathed foot. The upper stair is 20th century. The top floor has a timber-framed and plastered east party wall, a fireplace in the west wall, and a small pointed light at the eaves. The roof is a two-bay structure with arch-braced trusses, chamfered wind-braces, and two chamfered purlins. A cellar is located beneath the front part of the shop.

The building forms part of a significant late medieval planned urban group and is notable for its historical context.