Church Gate House

FEERING THE STREET TL 8620-8720 (north side)

7/117 Church Gate House

GV II

Guildhall, extended to form a house. Early C16, extended in C17 and C18. Timber framed, plastered, roofed with handmade red plain tiles. 3 bays aligned NE-SW, probably in churchyard originally. C17 2-bay extension with axial stack to SE of SW end, forming an L-plan, now facing SW. C18 extension along right side of original range, and one-bay extension beyond end. 2 storeys. 3-window range of tripartite sashes. 4-panel door and CL8 round window with radial tracery at front of C20 lean-to porch. The left return (facing the churchyard) has C18 patterned plaster, with lateral chevrons in panels, and a band of incised scrolled foliage at first floor level, incomplete. The original range is exceptionally narrow, span about 3.5 metres, with jowled posts, heavy studding, an edge-halved and bridled scarf in the left wallplate, cambered tiebeams with mortices for crownposts, not now present. Much of the right wallplate and studding below has been removed. This range was originally jettied at the front end, but the upper storey has been cut back to align with the lower storey. Unglazed windows and shutter grooves in left wall, mullions removed in lower window, possibly present in blocked upper window. Chamfered beams with runout stops, plain joists of large horizontal section. The absence of weathering on the right side indicates that it has always been protected by another range, in the same position as the present C17 range. Structure in this range mainly concealed by plaster, axial beam boxed in. An old photograph in the possession of the owner shows the round window which is now in the porch, on the front of the upper storey of the C17 range. A guild of Corpus Christi Is recorded in the 1524 Lay Subsidy returns (P.R.O. E.179/LOB/L74 and E.179/108/15S) and the Chantry Certificate (P.R.0. E.301/30/219). In 1548 the Crown granted to Thomas Goldyng and Walter Ely 'the land (30 ac.) in tenure of Reynold Hygate in Feryng, Essex, and the messuage called '[the Gilde Howse" and 2 ac. land in Feryng of the late guild called Corpus Christi there' (Calendar of Letters Patent, Edward VI, I, 341).

Listing NGR: TL8727620408