The Reader's House

The Reader’s House is a church house dating back to approximately 1616, although it has earlier origins. The structure is built of rubble with timber framing and plaster, topped with 20th-century plain tiles, and features rubble gable stacks with brick superstructures. It is a three-storey building. The central timber-frame and plaster porch-bay stands out with a 10-light moulded wood mullion and transom window, a 6-light mullion and transom to the left, an 8-light window to the right side, and a 2-light window with leaded lights and a casement to the left, all resting on enriched consoles. A moulded sill is also present on enriched consoles. A 4-light moulded wood mullion and transom window with leaded lights sits above a bressummer with an inscription and features enriched consoles. The building also includes enriched barge boards and a moulded wood mullion window to the far left. A studded plank stable door is present, accompanied by an ornate doorcase with Jacobean carving and an enriched lintel, with balusters and iron bars to the sides, all beneath a moulded bressummer. A 20th-century leaded light is housed in a moulded case, and a further 2-light canted mullion window with leaded lights is positioned to the left. The left gable features decorative bracing and enriched barge boards. The right gable is jettied to both the first and second floors, displaying largely restored framing and 20th-century barge boards. Inside, there is an early 17th-century winder stair from the ground to the first floor, and a spiral stair with chamfered newels leading to the second floor. The interior also contains stone fireplaces with oak lintels, moulded ceiling-frames with ogee-stop chamfered beams, decorative plasterwork ceilings, panelling, and a plank door within a moulded stone case, accessed from the porch.