Butcher's Market

The Butcher's Market is a late 17th-century building, constructed in a Jacobean style, situated prominently on the High Street. The main elevation is of roughly coursed and squared stone with a slate roof. It is a two-storey symmetrical range, with a taller three-window entrance section flanked by lower single-window ranges containing shops. An advanced, centrally gabled bay marks the entrance, featuring a segmentally arched entrance and an upper storey that is corbelled outwards, supporting a mullioned and transomed oriel window with leaded lights and a strapwork parapet. The oriel sits beneath a shaped gable with finials. The original full-height segmental openings on either side of the central gable have been altered to form windows for the adjacent shops. Above, three-light mullioned and transomed windows with leaded glazing, featuring pedimented heads and shaped gablets breaking the eaves line, are visible. Recessed side ranges, clasped by outer pilasters surmounted by urn finials, flank the main block. Number 11 retains a late 19th-century front with ornate panelled pilasters. Two-light mullioned and transomed windows with leaded lights are placed on either side above.

A rear entrance to the market hall, dating to approximately 1879-80, forms part of an extension and mirrors the design of the General Market entrance on the other side of the street. A segmentally arched entry, with renewed doors and glazed tympanum, features inset stone shafts with foliate capitals supporting the arch, which is ornamented with a stone rams-head key. Stepped terracotta corbelling follows the line of the steep stone-coped gable above. A two-storey shop building, dated 1880, projects from the left side of this entrance. Its stressed angle features panelled pilasters framing a recessed doorway, with similar pilasters at the ends of the shop windows on each elevation. Blind brickwork is set between the pilasters on the angled upper storey, and a stone panel carrying the date forms a cornice. A heavy cast iron scrolled lantern is affixed to the wall. Paired round-headed windows, with a central stone shaft, terracotta rosettes, and a continuous hood mould, are located on either side. A terracotta corbel table sits between the outer pilasters. The roof is hipped with slate, topped with lead finials.

Inside, the market hall has two permanent stalls or shops located on either side of the entrance from the High Street, featuring late 19th-century detailing. The hall itself comprises an eight-bay structure with timber trusses supported by cast iron columns and wrought iron braces, forming aisles.