35, Church Street

PARISH OF ECKINGTON CHURCH STREET SK 4379 11/78 No 35 Church Street II House, formerly a public meeting room or guildhall. C16 or earlier, converted to a dwelling in the late C16, and extended in mid C19. Restored 1986/7. Coursed coal measures sandstone with quoins, plain gables, ridge, side wall and gable brick stacks, Welsh and stone slated roofs. Two storeys, four bays, formerly with a random pattern of C19 openings with sash and casement windows, beneath plain timber lintels. Within the stone walls are quoined reveals of earlier window openings. All four walls at first floor level, and at least the south gable at ground floor level have surviving elements of substantial timber mullioned windows. The principal survivals are found in the south gable, where the head and cill members of a 10-light ground floor mullion and transom window and a 6-light first floor window survive, with sockets for diamond mullions, and holes for timber saddlebars. These windows, together with at least four other first floor windows including that to the earlier north gable, which was later obscured by the C19 bay added at the north end, were elements within a three bay range. A substantial stack was inserted into the central bay at its northern end in the late C16. The interior retains massive oak spine beams and substantial oak joists, back to back hearths, that to the south with a cambered lintel supported by side corbels integral with the hearth quoins. The first floor hearths of similar design, but smaller. The roof structure is re-assembled, but comprises queen strut trusses supporting single through purlins. The tie beams are slightly cambered. There are no windbraces but many oak rafters survive. The evidence of the window openings to the first floor and the substantial construction of the floor suggests the use of the first floor as an assembly room of some form, possibly a guildhall.

Listing NGR: SK4307479508