Church Farmhouse

TL 7337 TOPPESFIELD CHURCH LANE, North Side 6/10 Church Farmhouse GV II

Guildhall/church house, c.1500, altered in C16 and C19. Timber framed, plastered, roofed with machine-made red clay tiles. 4 bays aligned approx. NE- SW, aspect SE. Late C16 axial chimney stack one bay from NE end and C18 internal chimney stack at SW end. Rear stair tower with catslide roof behind main stack, and single-storey extensions with lean-to roofs to each side of it. 2 storeys. Jettied on front elevation, with 2 plain brackets exposed, underbuilt in the SW bay. Plain boarded door, 2 C19 casement windows and one single-hung sash window of 12 lights. First floor, 4 C19 casement windows. The exterior has C18/19 pargetting in panels with moulded borders. The interior has one hollow-moulded doorway with 4-centred head in partition wall of SW bay, a double-ogee moulded axial beam with carved foliate stops, jowled posts, grooves for sliding shutters on both floors, and an edge-halved and bridled scarf in the rear wallplate. The upper floor was originally one undivided space of 4 bays, for public purposes. No access to roof. The pegging of the rear wall indicates that there was a rear wing originally, which accounts for the narrow span, only approx. 5 metres. The position, immediately opposite the church, confirms its original function as a public building. A guild of St. Margaret is recorded in the 1524 Lay Subsidy (PRO, E.179/108/163 m. 6 d). RCHM 8.

Listing NGR: TL7393437477