Former Post Office, hall to rear and attached lantern and bracket, No. 43 High Street (EHER 38336)

No. 43 High Street is the former Literary and Mechanical Institute incorporating the Corn Hall, now a post office. It was built in 1860 from yellow stock brick and has a hipped slate roof. The building is three storeys and has a symmetrical three-bay range with the centre bay protruding forward underneath a pedimental gable. On the rear elevation is a large hall structure (the former Post Office sorting office) and a 20th century loading bay with lean-to roof.

January 1994. Grade II listed. No.43 High Street is the former Literary and Mechanical Institute incorporating the Corn Hall, now a post office. It was built in 1860 from yellow stock brick with dressings of stone and white brick. It has a hipped slate roof. The building is three storeys and has a symmetrical three-bay range with the centre bay protruding forward underneath a pedimental gable. The roof line has a cornice of stone corbels with a pattern of raised crosses in brick between each console bracket. In the centre of the first floor is three semicircular-arched openings, the centre a blank recess which is inscribed: 'PUBLIC HALL' and has a semicircular insert of coloured marble. Below this is a stone plaque inscribed: 'ERECTED AD MDCCCLX'. These arches are supported on short attached columns. Below, the ground floor has a pair of wide door openings under semicircular arches, one opening now infilled in matching brick and slightly recessed. The doors have cast-iron decorative fanlights and there is a lantern on a cast-iron bracket between the two doors. On the rear elevation is a large hall structure (the former Post Office sorting office) aligned north/south with a lower slate-roofed link block to the main building. This is constructed from yellow stock brick and has a half-hipped slate roof but with curious extended gablets of white weatherboarding. Each flank of the hall has five large windows within. On the rear (south elevation) is a 20th century loading bay with lean-to roof. The building abuts No.41 High Street (EHER 38335) to the west and No.47 (EHER 38337) to the east.<1> See photos <2>. The current post office building was originally the Literary and Mechanical Institute, which incorporated the Corn Hall. It was built in 1860 of yellow stock brick with dressings of stone and white brick, and is three-storeys high. <3> Google Streetview imagery shows that the right entrance opening which is described as infilled in the list description was restored as an entranceway at sometime between November 2010 and September 2016. <4> The Post Office moved into the building in 1980, prior to which they used the premises at No.51 High Street. <5> Note: The building is described as the Post Office in the list description, but the Post Office appear to have ceased using the building in at sometime between 2009 and 2016. <4>