Building record BCC 139 - 1 & 2, The Score

The right-hand half of the cottage (no.2 to the west) was built around 1550 as an extension to an earlier and slightly lower structure on the site of the left-hand half (no.1 to the east). This building consisted of brickwork on its lower storey with a timber-framed upper storey and a queen-post roof. The surviving structure represents only a fragment of a larger building of high status, and its precise purpose is therefore unclear; it is likely, however, that it formed a parlour with an inner ‘closet’ and was added to the gable of a substantial merchant’s hall, perhaps replacing a small and unheated medieval parlour.

The property underwent an extensive refurbishment in the mid-17th century (c.1620-40) which saw the insertion of a fashionable ovolo-moulded ceiling on the upper storey, the replacement of the original queen-post with a butt-purlin structure to create a viable attic chamber lit by two large dormers and two gable windows, and the almost complete reconstruction of the gable to accommodate new ground- and first-floor fireplaces. An original queen-post truss was allowed to remain in the eastern gable adjoining the older structure on the site of no.1, which gable still preserves the scar of the latter’s lower roof. It is likely that the timber-framed upper storey of the front elevation was replaced in brick during the same refurbishment. The older structure on the site of no.1 was entirely rebuilt in brick during the early-18th century retaining only a 17th century brick chimney at its eastern gable. The façade of no.2 was refaced and partly rebuilt to match and the resulting new front (northern) elevation contained an impressive series of 10 fashionable sash windows. The floor level of no.2 was lowered by over two feet and a brick cellar excavated beneath.

The late-19th or early-20th century saw a further phase of refurbishment which included the replacement of the 18th century narrow sash windows with the present larger examples and the rendering or painting of the brickwork. At some point, probably during the 19th century, a third cottage which has since been demolished was built against the western gable, and the house also appears to have been partly truncated to the east (S1).