Building record 1245707000 - 56, 58 & 60 HIGH STREET

Grade II+. C16 altered C17. Now three houses. Timber framed, colourwashed plaster, old tile roof, large red brick early C17 chimney stack to left with 4 octagonal moulded shafts. 4 gabled dormers. Coved cornice. Two storeys and attic. Flint rubble plinth. Carriageway on left hand (leading to "The Worthys" at rear). Three doors and three 3-light diamond leaded casements to ground floor, three similar windows to first floor and shallower 3-light casement above carriage arch, to room actually part of No 54 [CASS 1245707000]. Interior: No 56 has wall paintings of c1600 in front-ground floor room depicting the Nine Worthies. (RCHM p8 MON 34) (B1).
Wall paintings discovered in autumn 1931 and recorded by Francis Reader. Two walls of room divided into 9 panels each containing a brilliantly coloured full-length figure in a landscaped setting and originally with a caption beneath each figure (only 6 figures and 2 inscriptions survived). The figures depicted warriors dressed in pseudo-classic or medieval style, each holding a pennoned lance with a heraldic badge. The surviving figures depicted Julius Caesar, 'Duke' Joshua, King David, Hector of Troy, Charlemagne and Godfrey de Bouillon. The three missing figures would have been Alexander the Great, Judas Maccabaeus and King Arthur. Dated to the middle of the 16th century. The first-floor room was also decorated with panels painted with a simple architectural scheme of black semi-circular arches resting on brackets with bosses beneath and an oval pendant suspended from the centre of each arch (B2).
NGR to number 58.