Summary

A C18 three-storey urban vernacular building with Victorian shop front and extension to the rear, and a separate two-storey range with link passage.

Description

A C18 three-storey urban vernacular building with Victorian shop front and extension to the rear, and a separate two-storey range with link passage.

MATERIALS: The principal elevation is red brick laid in Flemish bond with stone window dressings. The rear range; No. 4 Frog Lane is built from rough rubble stone. Both have slate roofs.

PLAN: Located on a corner plot No. 20 Broad Street is a two-bay range orientated west to east, with No. 2 Frog Lane projecting to the south. No. 4 Frog Lane is a two-bay range linked to the principal building by a brick passage.

EXTERIOR: The principal elevation is a symmetrical arrangement. At ground-floor level is a shop front with a recessed central half-glazed door with fielded panels and a plain rectangular overlight. To either side are large glazed areas of 24 panes with narrow glazing bars and glazed panes to the returns. Below the windows are fielded panels above a plinth. There is a narrow, plain fascia running across the front. The first and second-floor windows are eight-over-eight and four-over-four hornless sashes with projecting stone cills and rusticated lintels with keystones. The east elevation of No. 20 Broad Street has three casements and a doorway with flat arch lintels. No. 4 Frog Lane is blind except for a small casement on the first floor of the right-hand side. The two buildings are linked by a brick junction in line with No. 4 Frog Lane, projecting out from No. 2 Frog Lane. It has a doorway with arched brick lintel.

INTERIOR: The interior was not inspected for the purposes of this assessment, but this description has been informed by the Insight Historic Buildings Research report (2009). No. 2 Frog Lane has a single room to each floor, with a fireplace in the west wall of the ground and first floors. It retains historic fittings, such as the shutter doors to the south window of the ground floor, a moulded fireplace on the first floor, and a moulded architrave around a door. No. 4 Frog Lane has flagstone floors and contains a simple staircase with moulded and chamfered elements. There is a brick-arched cellar. It has a king-post truss roof structure with single purlins.

History

Bromyard is a small market town that was first recorded in circa 840. No. 20 Broad Street is situated on one of the principal thoroughfares in the town adjoining the market square. The street appears to have been fully built up by the early C17, though some of the plots have been re-developed since that time.

No. 20 Broad Street dates from the C18 and was extended to the rear, forming what is now known as No. 2 Frog Lane. No. 4 Frog Lane was built separately, probably in the late-C18 and was then linked to the principal building to form a service range.

The building, like many others in the town, is likely to have been raised and refronted in the C19, probably at the same time as the Victorian shop front was added.

Reasons for Listing

No. 20 Broad Street and Nos. 2-4 Frog Lane are designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Architectural: a pleasant, well-proportioned and symmetrical principal elevation
* Intactness: it has an unaltered façade and a pleasant and intact Victorian shop front
* Historic: a good example of the vernacular tradition of the area and illustrates well the development of the building
* Group value: it occupies a prominent position and has strong group value with other buildings in the town centre

Selected Sources

• James, D Insight Historic Buildings Research, An Analysis of the Historic Fabric of Fifty Buildings in the Central Area of Bromyard, Herefordshire, (2009)

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