Greengate Street, Stafford,

Description:View looking towards Market Square.

The timber framed building on the left is the Ancient High House, built by Richard Dorrington in 1595. In 1826 the building was bought by John Marson, who converted the lower floor into shops. The building is now owned by the Borough Council and opened to the public as a heritage and exhibition centre in 1987.

The building with bow windows is the Swan Hotel, originally built as two private town houses in the seventeenth century. The buildings were converted into a coaching inn in 1752 and a Georgian front was later added.

In-between the High House and the Swan is Shaw's House, named after a shoemaker who lived there in the nineteenth century and thought to have been erected earlier than the Ancient High House. In 1947 its facade was restored; the new plaster was painted to represent the timber framing underneath.

On the right is Dale's, an ironmongery. The building was a typical Tudor house (c.1500), originally thatched, and first used as a shop in 1811 when Bartlem Tomlinson started his ironmonger's business there. Philip Dale was one of his apprentices. In 1826 Dale set up his own business, acquiring Tomlinson's old premises in 1835.

The building was demolished in the 1960s and replaced by modern shops.