Abbots Lodge

Abbots Lodge is a timber-framed and brick house of 15th-century origin, situated on the south side of Church Lane. The building was extended in the 16th century, probably remodelled in the 17th century, and further extended and remodelled in the 18th and early 19th centuries. It has slate gable-ended and hipped roofs, with brick axial stacks.

The house follows an overall E-shaped plan. The original structure comprised a three-bay north-west wing functioning as the hall range, with at least two of its bays open to the roof, and the north three bays of an east range forming a cross-wing with a two-bay first floor chamber open to the roof. Around the 16th century, a three-bay range was added to the south end of the east cross-wing, with its south end bay serving as a smoke-bay, probably for use as a kitchen. On the west side of this range, a two-storey two-bay wing was constructed in the early to mid-18th century. In the early 19th century, a large brick wing was added to the south-west corner, and the interior of the original house was remodelled to create a spacious central staircase and principal rooms in the east range. Later in the 19th century, the south-west wing appears to have been heighted to three storeys, and two large bay windows and a porch were added to the east front.

The north front is two storeys and four bays, with a gabled cross-wing to the left and a small gable at centre. It features various mullion-transom windows and casements, a glazed door to the left, and a passageway to the right. An early 19th-century brick coach house is attached to the cross-wing on the left.

The west elevation faces a courtyard and includes an 18th-century two-storey brick wing at the centre with a sixteen-pane sash on the first floor and a lean-to addition on its right (south) side. The higher ground level has resulted in a single-storey four-window east front with two large Victorian canted and square bay windows with a gabled porch between. Two storeys remain on the left with a mullion-transom window in a small gable. Set back on the left (south) is a large three-storey brick wing with a hipped slate roof, brick dentil eaves, sashes with glazing bars, and casements on the second floor. A tall stair window with a pointed arch is present, and a 20th-century conservatory occupies the south side.

The interior largely reflects 18th and 19th-century remodelling. Principal rooms in the east wing feature moulded ceiling cornices and marble chimneypieces, with a wide open-well staircase between them containing stick balusters and a moulded mahogany handrail ramped up to slender column newels. 18th and 19th-century joinery includes panelled doors and moulded architraves.

The first floor chamber in the north-west wing has a plaster vaulted ceiling beneath which sits the hall roof. At least two of the three bays were open to the roof, with the tie-beam and collar truss to the east of centre elaborately decorated with cusps and foils to the raking struts and collar. The roof to the west appears to have been rebuilt in the 17th century, though the splayed posts of the truss to the west of centre remain visible. The wall-plates continue into the cross-wing as tie-beams. The three-bay cross-wing roof is complete with tie-beam and collar trusses, the north bay separated by a closed truss, and the truss between the centre and south bays featuring a chamfered arch-braced collar truss over the first floor chamber. The three-bay roof of the 16th-century addition to the south contains tie-beam and collar trusses. The 18th-century wing on the west side of the 16th-century three-bay range has a two-bay tenoned purlin roof with a king-post truss.