Church Farmhouse

Church Farmhouse is a house dating from the mid 16th century and the late 17th or early 18th century, with notable alterations made to the front in the 19th and 20th centuries. The building is timber framed, with parts roughcast rendered and parts covered in white brick. It has a steeply pitched roof covered in plain tiles, and an internal stack has been inserted into the rear pitch. Originally, the house had a two-bay range from the 16th century, which was extended by two additional bays at the west end in the late 16th century.

The house is two storeys high, with the first floor originally jettied, as indicated by the visible soffit of the bressummer above the doorway, and the joists are cogged to the bressummer. There are two flush frame sixteen-pane hung sash windows from the 19th century on the first floor, and two ground floor windows on either side of the doorway, which are deeply recessed in the original ground floor wall. The late 17th to early 18th century range on the west side is timber framed, with a roughcast rendered gable end and white brick casing on the front wall. It has a steeply pitched plain tiled roof and a square gault brick ridge stack. This section is one storey with an attic, featuring two gable dormers and two 19th century windows. The rear of the building has later lean-tos and outshuts.

Inside, the wall framing with substantial scantling is visible on the first floor, along with a wind-braced side purlin roof. The two eastern bays were originally a single room, into which the stack was inserted in the 17th or 18th century. The ceiling features intersecting main beams, one of which is partly obscured by the inserted inglenooks. The main beams are stop-chamfered, and the substantial scantling joists are laid flat and unmoulded. It appears that the two bays at the eastern end may have been part of a larger building, possibly a solar wing to a hall house, with the hall rebuilt at the west end in the late 17th or early 18th century. Its proximity to the church suggests it may have had a special purpose.