Building record 1301700000 - LIBRARY, CHURCH STREET

Grade II. Library, formerly a row of cottages, built as one house. C15-early C16, altered C16-early C17 and C19, restored 1938. Timber frame with whitewashed render infill. Ground floor front rebuilt in brick early C19, left gable rebuilt in brick C20 with crow-stepped top. Tiled roof. 1½ storeys, the upper storey jettied to front on beam ends. 4 bays. Irregular barred wooden windows: 3-light horizontal sliding sash to ground floor left, 4-light casement in bay 2, canted bay window in bay 3, long eaves-line dormer with row of 6 small casements in bay 2. Board door to left, C20 double doors recessed in right bay. Interior is open to roof with narrow gallery along S. jettied side. Centre bays originally an open hall, the central truss with chamfered arched braces to collar. Curved braces to flanking tie beam trusses on S. side, N. braces replaced C20. Curved wind-braces in roof. C17 wing to rear has timber-frame with brick infill in gable, and side walls rebuilt in brick. RCHM I p. 271 Mon.12 (B1).
Buildings report dated May 1990 held at NMR (B2).
Of a row of cottages in Church Street condemned as unfit for habitation in the 1930s, all but two survive. Converted into the Parrott Hall, named after the local solicitor who organised their rescue, the cottages were for a time the headquaters of the fire brigade. Later, between 1956-86, they housed the local branch of the county library and when that was superseded by the present library they became a restaurant (B3).