So what remains that aids identification?
1. The road at left is a normal road, with this area widened to provide an original market area or possibly a market overspill, though the perimeter buildings indicate that it would have been there a century or two at least.
2. There is what looks like a brick market archway at left, and this may still survive, or at least might appear in town history albums.
3. The road continues up the hill to pass near the church, and this locational feature has already ruled out several candidates (though its position may be wrong).
4. The main building in the painting has a pantile roof, and others may have one as well. Pantiles originally came into Britain from Holland and Belgium as ship's ballast from around the 17th century, and can be found in counties down the east coast from Scotland to Kent. Some also came in to a few western ports, notably Bridgwater, Somerset, which developed a considerable industry serving adjacent south-western counties. But tiles are heavy, and before mass transport arrived they didn't travel into other parts of the country.
