Vine Cottage And Church View

Vine Cottage and Church View is a timber-framed house, now divided into 2 cottages, located on the north-west side of Terling Church Green. The building is of exceptional historic interest as a rare example of a small aisled hall retaining both aisles.

The house began as a 2-bay aisled hall, facing south-east, dating to the early 14th century or earlier. This core structure has been substantially altered and extended over subsequent centuries. A timber-framed chimney stack was inserted into the left bay against the front wall, replaced by a brick stack in the 17th or 18th century. The upper part of this stack was rebuilt in the 20th century but retains an inscription in moulded brick reading '1613 R.T.' in a recessed panel. The transverse beam of the inserted floor projects through the front wall at eaves level.

To the left of the hall is a 2-bay crosswing of late 14th-century date, constructed with a complete crownpost roof featuring a cambered central tiebeam, short cross-quadrate crownpost of large section with broach stops, and 4 rising braces. A 19th-century external stack and 19th-century 2-storey extension adjoin this crosswing. Behind extends a 17th or 18th-century one-bay extension with a 19th-century external stack and a lean-to addition forming a catslide with the crosswing roof, which contains a 19th-century internal stack.

To the right of the hall is a 3-bay crosswing of 15th-century date, with a plain collar-rafter roof, constructed from the outset in 2 long bays and one short bay at the rear. The ground-floor partition between the middle and rear bays is exposed, showing widely spaced studding and a doorway with 4-centred head. A lean-to extension forms a catslide to the right, and a 20th-century single-storey extension sits at the rear right corner.

The hall itself is of one storey with attics. A lean-to extension to the rear, forming a catslide with the hall roof, is slated. Both crosswing roofs have gablet hips at the rear, and the crosswings are jetted to the front; 2 plain brackets are exposed below the left jetty.

The building is timber-framed and plastered, roofed mainly with handmade red clay tiles and partly with slate. The arcade posts of the aisled hall are unjowled. The rear arcade plate is visible in a cupboard of Vine Cottage with the brace removed; the remainder is enclosed. The front arcade plate is exposed across the top of the dormer and covered elsewhere. Doubled straight square bracing to the central tiebeam is visible from the roof. The roof of the hall is of simple collar-rafter construction, heavily smoke-blackened in the left bay and rebuilt in softwood in the right bay. An axial bridging beam in Church View, chamfered with step stops, indicates that the floor was inserted before c.1570.

The interior is mainly plastered, but sufficient of the frame is visible to indicate significant differences of construction between the aisled hall and the 2 crosswings. The wallplates of both crosswings project through the plaster. A wide wood-burning hearth facing right, reduced for a 20th-century grate, has been inserted so as to leave the original cross-entry unobstructed, now the entrance-hall of Vine Cottage; the original doorways are not visible. A dado of early 17th-century oak panelling survives in the right bay of the hall in Church View.

The fenestration includes 3 early 20th-century casements on the ground floor, one 20th-century splayed bay below the jetty of the right crosswing, 2 similar casements on the first floor, one more in a gabled dormer, and one 20th-century casement. One 20th-century door is located at the left end of the hall (Vine Cottage), and one plain boarded door below the jetty of the right crosswing (Church View).

The date 1613 recorded on the brick stack may refer to a late alteration to the stack or to the replacement of a timber-framed chimney, built before c.1570, by a brick stack. The apparent association with the parish church is misleading, for another street of houses existed in front of it until c.1843. The house may originally have faced onto a market place. A market and fair were established in Terling by 1331, a date compatible with the earliest part of this house.