Description

1690 s with later re-working. 2-storey, 3-bay rectangular-plan house with modern extensions to rear. Rendered, painted stone margins to openings, spur stone to far left.

SE (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: near symmetrical elevation. Centred door flanked by windows. 1st floor windows above openings below, close to eaves.

SW ELEVATION: attached to 70 High Street.

NW (REAR) ELEVATION: altered elevation. Modern 2-storey outshot to off-centre left with door to ground and window above, single storey flat-roofed outshot to ground left. Windows to original house to 1st floor of 1st bay and ground and 1st floor of 3rd bay. Steep bank running away from elevation rising to NW, stone steps with inscription on riser 'AB21'

NE ELEVATION: attached to 62-66 High Street.

Modern timber door, predominantly 12-pane sash and case hinge arrangement windows. Pitched roof, modern pantiles with slate eaves easing course. Coped ashlar skew, ashlar gable apex stack with circular clay cans to SW. Roof and stack to NE truncated by gable of 62-64 High Street.

INTERIOR: rear twin-leaf timber hall door with 18th century hinges and locks. 1st floor bedroom to SW; fluted pilasters to box bed recess, hinged timber panelled folding door, dado rail within recess. Boxroom leading from SW bedroom to NW bedroom; door with decorative 18th century cam sprung loaded shib. Bedroom to NE; decorative cornice, remains of wainscoting.

Statement of Interest

NOTES: The owner of the house is in possession of the original deeds to the property which date the property back to the 1690s. The garden to 68 High Street runs along the NE elevation of a disused forge, the relationship between the house and forge seems to be strong. The house has a number of 18th century hinges and locks which more than likely would have been made in the nearby forge. There is also a set of steps which leads from the rear right ground floor window to the forge wall, this window has signs that at one time it was a door, the cill has had the central section filled in, suggesting that at one time it was a larger opening. The stairs leading away from the house run up to the SW wall of the forge and although there is no doorway at this point there are signs that there was a door further along. The adjoining 70 High Street 'Anvil House' (see separate listing) is an early 19th century house and was the home of the village blacksmith until the later 20th century. There is evidence of a window in the roofspace of the SW gable of 68 possibly indicating that there was not a 2-storey property adjoining before Anvil House was built. The spurstone to the south corner of the principal elevation possibly indicates that traffic would have originally passed round the SW of the house suggesting that before the adjacent Anvil House was built there was no building in its place. It is possible that 68 High Street was the blacksmith's residence and as the village grew in the late 18th century the blacksmith could afford to build a grander house. The aforementioned spurstone most probably acted to protect the building from traffic associated with the forge directly behind. When the render was removed from No 68 for repairs in 2000 it was revealed that originally there had been a different pattern of fenestration and a number of doors to the ground floor, there was also evidence of a vertical arris running to the off-centre right of the building suggesting that this section of the house was built at a later date. The house we see today is made up from 2/3 houses converted most likely in the early 19th century to 1 dwelling place. The earlier arrangement is no longer reflected internally.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17817119

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Liverpool: Pevsner City Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  London 4: North: North v. 4 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gloucestershire 1: The Cotswolds: Cotswolds Pt. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)