Church House

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 24/04/2020

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SEDGEBERROW CP MAIN STREET (south side) Church House

30-7-59

II* Chapel, now house. C13 origins, remodelled c1600 with late C18 addition and further mid-C19 and mid-C20 alterations. Part coursed limestone rubble with ashlar dressings, part timber-framed with roughcast infill, painted brick additions and thatched roof. Three bays aligned north-east/south-west, external roughcast rubble chimney with brick stack at south-west end. Two storeys.

Framing: two rows of square panels at first floor level. Much of the timber has been replaced and there is a replacement collar and tie-beam truss with struts at the north-east end.

South-east front elevation: the ground floor has a C20 canted hipped-roofed bay window with a stone-tiled roof in the left bay and two three-light C20 leaded casements with plank weatherings in the right bay. On the first floor is an oriel window, a four-light leaded casement and a three-light casement; all are C19. The central entrance has a C20 gabled timber porch on an ashlar base and a partly glazed C20 door. At the north-east end of the ground floor is a C13 window which has a pair of cusped lancets and between them a pointed-lobed quatrefoil. The semi-circular head is cut from a single stone block, as is the chamfered mullion and sill. There is also a C13 cusped lancet at the eastern end of the rear wall. At the rear of the central bay is a two-storey C18 kitchen wing with a brick ridge end stack.

Interior: the chapel originally occupied the north-east bay and the walls at this end are about 2' 4" thick and the windows are deeply splayed; the two-light window has holes in the mullion probably for shutter bolts. The main ground floor rooms have c1600 ogee stop-chamfered main ceiling beams and joists. The central ground floor room is sub-divided by a lateral arch-braced chamfered ceiling beam. There is a large fireplace at the south-west end (with a bread oven and c1600 narrow brick lining to sides) and also in the C18 kitchen wing. Mainly flagstone floors; central bay has probable reused ledger slabs on the floor, a niche in the south-east wall (possibly a reset upturned basin or even piscina as it has a blocked central drainage hole) and in a recess in the north-east side is a Jacobean settle with baluster legs (apparently an original fixture).

The chapel is said to have been built by Thomas of Evesham who built the present parish church of St Mary (qv) in circa 1328 when he eventually settled in Sedgeberrow.

Listing NGR: SP0201638310