Description

Eighteenth century with later alterations. Two-storey with attic, four-bay (post office to ground floor), rectangular-plan house with three-storey, three-bay early 20th century tenement attached to rear. Rendered, stone margins to openings. NORTHWEST(PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: asymmetrical elevation. Shopfront; central recessed door, flanking canted display windows with low stall risers. Blocked far right lower section of display window incorporating George V wall post box with two defunct vending machines. Ventilators, architrave, pulvinated frieze and moulded cornice to shopfront. Door to far left. Regularly spaced first floor windows close to eaves. NORTHEAST ELEVATION: attached to 41 High Street. SOUTHEAST ELEVATION: door to off-centre left, flanking windows to ground floor. First and second floor windows arranged above ground floor windows. Extra small central first floor window. SOUTHWEST ELEVATION: attached to 55 High Street. Shopfront; timber and glass door with fanlight, plate glass windows with timber astragals. Timber boarded door with fanlight to far left of northwest elevation, modern door to southeast. Predominantly two-pane timber sash and case windows with horns, eight-pane sash and case windows to ground floor of southeast. Centred cast-iron rooflight flanked by piended eight-pane timber sash and case dormer windows to northwest. Pitched slate roof to northwest. Coped skews, skewputts to northwest. Coped gable apex stack to northeast, coped shared gable apex stack to southwest, polygonal clay cans. INTERIOR: modernised interior to post office. Stairwell to tenement with original decorative cast-iron balusters remaining in parts. OUTBUILDING: three small outbuildings to rear; predominantly brick with central stone rubble section, monopitch roof, red clay pantiles. Wash house to far northwest; remains of boiler to northeast wall, two raised sinks to southwest wall, stone tile floor.

Statement of Interest

NOTES: There has been a post office in Aberdour since the 1st of February 1757. It has been at its present location 43-51 High Street since the mid 1930s, the shop front and the George V wall post box (Ludlow style) and postage stamp dispenser probably date from this time. Halfway down the through entrance passage way running from northwest to southeast the wall branches off to the southwest, the corner is chamfered indicating that it is the original external wall of No 43 before the tenement was added. Further along the southwest passage there is a recessed door with very thick jambs, this would have been the original rear door to No 43. It is possible that the through entrance passage way was originally a pend, the thick original external walls to either side suggest this, at some time the pend has been bridged and the building extended over at first floor level to meet No 41 High Street.

Listed building record updated in 2026 to correct the information about the wall post box.

External Links

• Wikidata Q56614914

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Recommended Books

• 
  Devon (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Cornwall (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  County Durham (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England) by Elizabeth Williamson Nikolaus Pevsner(1983-03-11)
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  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990: Updated version
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  Surrey (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings