8 Well Street

This is a symmetrical three-storey building dating from the 18th century. It is situated on Well Street and originally comprised three windows to each of the first and second floors, with a central entrance flanked by grouped windows on the ground floor.

The ground floor is constructed of rusticated stone with a wide moulded string course, while the upper floors are roughcast. A pecked stone plinth is visible, rising higher on the left side due to the sloping ground. The roof is slate, although the chimney stacks are no longer present. The wide central entrance features panelled pilasters, a deep fascia, and a dentil cornice, incorporating four shuttered panelled doors and an iron sign bracket above. The grouped windows on either side of the entrance have stone voussoirs with keystones and stone sills with aprons. A blank tablet is located beneath the central window on the left. The windows to the upper floors are horned sash windows with small panes, set within raised stone surrounds which are eared and shouldered on the first floor. A narrow window above the entrance, without glazing bars, has a prominent keystone and apron, flanked by wide tripartite sash windows. The second floor contains three-over-six-pane sash windows immediately below the eaves.

The east gable end has no openings but is heavily battered at ground floor level. The west gable end features a three-light window offset to the right, with a 20th-century wooden casement in the upper storey, alongside a cross-window. A catslide roof extends to the right. The rear of the building is roughcast and has been modernised with late 20th-century transomed wooden windows, including a tall, narrow gable, possibly for a staircase. Two rear wings extend from the gable ends, both two storeys high. The east rear wing includes a fire-escape staircase to the south gable end. The west wing is longer, with a large Perspex lean-to porch in the angle with the main range and facing east. The west side of the west wing has two windows, including small-pane cross-windows on the ground floor, a similar window to the upper left, and a small top-hung window to the upper right. A further wing continues to the right, and may be of earlier origin.

Inside the entrance, a wide modern through-passage functions as a shopping arcade, with shops on both sides. Remnants of the building’s earlier structure are visible, including a large medium-chamfered spine beam, plain joists, and fragments of timber-framing with brick infill set on a stone plinth in a partition to the right. A fragment of a cruck blade, possibly not originally in situ, with wattle and daub infill is also present. To its right is a high Tudor-arched timber doorway containing a later 20th-century shop door. A brick partition wall is visible on the left side of the through-passage, while a section of a stone wall is visible to the rear. Behind the right-hand shop is a further unit with stop-chamfered beams and plain joists in the ceiling.