5 & 6 High Street

5 & 6 High Street

A Grade II* listed building comprising painted brick to the front elevation with some stonework to the rear, topped by a steep slate roof with rear wall axial stacks. The building is three storeys with an attic and cellar.

The front elevation spans six windows, though the fenestration pattern has been extensively altered over time. A round-arched passage entry is positioned to the left. The main entrance stands right of centre: a six-panelled door in a pedimented architrave with a radial fanlight. To its right is a mid-19th century floor-length shop window divided into three panes by slender mullions, with a moulded cornice carried on brackets featuring heavy foliate enrichment. A second doorway, similar to the main entrance and with a radial fanlight, stands to the right of the shop front. This second doorway probably dates to the late 18th century and may have been inserted when the house was subdivided into two tenements; the doorway cuts through the cambered head of an earlier window. To the left of the main entrance is a 12-pane sash window with a cambered brick head, and a tripartite small-paned sash window.

The fenestration above represents several building phases. The earliest windows appear to be the three positioned over the shop front and right-hand doorway, which have steep cambered brick heads and 12-pane sashes (almost certainly inserted into original openings). Similar blocked windows are visible between the two right-hand windows and over the main entrance. Aligned with the lower openings are two further 12-pane sashes with cambered brick heads and a tripartite small-paned sash window. The second storey fenestration also aligns with the lower openings, though blocked windows appear above the main entrance and to the right. A modillion eaves cornice runs across the front, with five hipped dormers featuring 6-pane sash windows breaking the roofline.

The rear elevation displays stonework around the base of the two chimneys, probably associated with their construction, with more extensive stonework visible in the left-hand angle. A single-storey 19th-century wing extends to the left, with a six-panelled doorway to its right and an inserted 12-pane sash window alongside. Two similar windows on the first floor represent late 18th to early 19th-century insertions; visible straight joints probably mark the jambs of earlier openings. The second storey has two windows of 6 and 12 panes. A third storey, clearly a later addition probably dating to the early 19th century, contains two 6-pane sash windows.

The plan comprises two principal rooms on each floor divided by a central hall, with a staircase rising from the cellar (previously housing the kitchen) to the attic. Additional rooms are positioned over the through side passage on the upper storeys. The rooms are deep in plan with rear wall fireplaces. Moulded plaster cornices encase the transverse beam in the lower left-hand room, and a reeded plaster cornice encase the beam in the room above. Elsewhere, the beams are simply chamfered with stepped stops.

The principal interior feature is the staircase, dating to around 1660. It rises round a well with tall obelisk-like newels and pendants decorated with raised jewelled panelwork, squared balusters with slanted mouldings, and modillion moulding to the closed string. The attic flight is simplified with flatter balusters. A similarly styled gate serves the cellar flight.