Church House Farm

Church House Farm

A 15th-century hall house, modified in the 16th century with the construction of a cross wing. The building was modified again in the 17th century with the insertion of a first floor in the hall, which was later rebuilt as a two-storey hall. The house was substantially rebuilt in the late 18th or early 19th century and subsequently modernised.

The pre-18th-century parts of the building are largely timber-framed with plaster and brick infill panels. The late 18th-century rebuilding was carried out in stone and brick with a slate roof.

The house is orientated roughly east-west with its former associated farm buildings to the west. It stands behind a large forecourt with brick and stone boundary walls, and has a single-storey outbuilding range to the east which runs roughly north-west to south-east.

The principal façade faces south and in its present form is the stone façade dating from the late 18th or early 19th-century remodelling. This is a wide stone frontage beneath a hipped slate roof with chimneys at each end and an off-centre stack. The main portion is broadly symmetrical and corresponds with the former hall range within. It is three bays wide with the former central door now blocked. The windows are casements within arched surrounds. The main door is in the left portion of the blocked entrance, set in a dressed stone surround, and is a timber-panelled door with a glazed upper section. The part of the façade west of the main block corresponds with the cross wing within. This is slightly recessed from the main block and has a sash window to each floor. At the east end is a single-storey lean-to.

The rear of the house is in brick with varied fenestration. The western end, which is the rear of the cross wing, is timber-framed with brick infill panels and an external access to the cellar. Adjacent to this is the projecting stair tower, which is of brick but with a partial stone base, perhaps from an earlier incarnation. Beyond this the façade is of brick and there is a single, full-height post which is thought to be part of the rear of the hall range as reconstructed in the 17th century.

Internally, the historic layout of the house is discernible although now much altered. The main door opens into a hall at what was the high end of the hall. A counter-change ceiling which was inserted into the hall mostly survives; it now covers this hall and the adjacent living room which has a wide stone fireplace. The ceiling has deeply chamfered principal beams and exposed joists which are also chamfered with decorative stops. The eastern end of the house has been remodelled at ground-floor level and is largely of modern character.

The ground-floor southern room of the cross wing has a timber cupboard with alcove above and a fireplace dating from the 18th-century remodelling of the house. Remnants of an earlier fireplace are adjacent to the latter, which appears to date from before the subdivision of the cross wing, and there is evidence of an earlier plaster cornice. This room contains a surviving plain painted decorative scheme which appears to have been formed of deep red painted posts with white infill panels, creating a striped effect. Small sections of this survive and it is likely that more may be hidden beneath later coverings. A timber-framed partition divides the cross wing at both levels with now-blocked doors between the rooms. In the small room beyond this, evidence in the ceiling suggests the location of the original stair.

Beyond the cross wing, in the projecting stair tower, a 19th-century timber stair with stick balusters gives access to the upper floor. A secondary timber stair is located at the east end of the house.

At first-floor level, the rooms in the main block contain few features of particular note. The south-facing room adjacent to the cross wing has the exposed timber frame of the cross wing wall, with partially weathered timbers above the shadow of a former roof line which appears to denote the roof of the original hall. This room also has deeply chamfered ceiling beams with some sections of moulded timber.

The main first-floor room of the cross wing has the painted decorative scheme. Surviving elements have been exposed on the east and west walls and on the northern inserted wall dividing the cross wing. The south wall, having been rebuilt, is presumed not to retain any decoration. As exposed, the east wall appears to have the best survival with most of the wattle and daub infill panels surviving as well as the decoration on the majority of the posts, studs and rails. It also appears likely to have been the main focal point of the decorative scheme. The elevation appears to have been divided into seven panels of varying sizes, symmetrically arranged with a large central panel. The panels are divided by columns with decorative capitals reminiscent of Corinthian heads. The central panel is occupied by a large figurative scene, largely created from simple black lines on the pale background of the plasterwork. This depicts two large winged cherubs, who are holding what appear to be stems of flowers in one hand and with the other are supporting a large, centrally-placed fleur-de-lys which they appear to be about to place on a pedestal. Flanking the pedestal are a pair of winged grotesque figures. To either side of this central panel appear to be a pair of narrower panels containing geometric patterns of intersecting shapes.

Further to the left of the northern geometric panel is a surviving panel comprising a further central pedestal supporting a vase with various fruits and leaves emerging, flanked by two winged creatures. The detail of the head of only one of these survives and it has a protruding tongue, and sitting above its head is a pot which it appears to be supporting. This is largely formed of simple black lines on a dark red background. This was presumably mirrored on the southern side as the arrangement appears to have been largely symmetrical, but that panel towards the south is missing. Finally, the southernmost surviving panel is narrow with the same geometric patterning as flanks the central panel with a blue background. This was presumably mirrored at the northern end, although the northernmost panel has been destroyed by a later inserted doorway.

The pattern of columns dividing the main bays of the decorative scheme rises as far as a large frieze which runs along the length of the east wall. This has strapwork cartouches running along it, in varying degrees of survival, alternating smaller panels with longer ones. The longer panels appear to have originally borne religious text. One to the south survives intact and reads "LOVE GOD".

On the northern and western walls only fragments of the painted scheme have been uncovered, largely sections on timberwork. This is sufficient to show that both the doorway to the smaller northern room and that to the garderobe are decorated with columns similar to those on the east wall. The remainder of exposed fragments appear to echo similar arrangements to that on the east wall, including some suggestion that the same frieze ran along the west and north walls.

The house stands behind a wide forecourt which is bounded by brick side walls and stone walls adjacent to the road. To the east there is a single-storey stone outbuilding with timber roof structure.