2, Church Street

House at 2 Church Street, Blackmore

This is the earliest known house in Church Street and probably in Blackmore parish. It is timber-framed with plaster finish and some exposed framing, roofed with machine-made red clay tiles. The building dates from the early 14th century or earlier, with major alterations around 1600 and further changes in the 19th and 20th centuries.

The house comprises a single range of five bays with a continuous jetty to the street. The three northern bays (total length 9.42 metres) date from the early 14th century or earlier, though their front wall, jetty and floor structure were rebuilt around 1600. The two southern bays (total length 5.10 metres) were added around 1600. There is an axial stack at the right end and a rear stack at the left end. On the first floor, the house incorporates one bay to the north (length 2.77 metres) of which the remainder forms the front range of the adjacent Little Jordan, also dating from around 1600. Complex extensions to the rear were added around 1976.

The exterior is of two storeys. The ground floor has five 20th-century sashes of 8 over 8 lights in early 19th-century style, and the first floor has three similar sashes. There is a 20th-century six-panel door. The ground floor is plastered below the exposed jetty plate. The exposed bressummer and joists are of vertical section, with all studs above and two primary straight braces. An almost complete set of chisel-cut carpenter's assembly marks near the base of the studs distinguishes the two construction phases. The three left bays are numbered 1 to 21 from left to right. Beyond a straight joint in the jetty plate, bressummer and wallplate are the two 20th-century insertions. The straight brace at the left end is a 20th-century insertion; the equivalent brace at the right end is original.

The rear elevation is wholly plastered with 20th-century casements. In the left range the rear wall is entirely early 14th century or earlier, with one jowled post at the left end and others unjowled. There is heavy studding at 0.71 metre centres, trenches for missing curved tension braces 0.25 metres wide, a girt with mortices for wide joists jointed to it with unrefined central tenons, and in the wallplate a splayed and under-squinted scarf. The post at the right end is scarfed with a splay and one under-squinted abutment. The first-floor studs are heavily weathered except where protected by the former eaves, and unusually are numbered near the top on the outside from left to right. Due to removal of some for doorways and concealment of others by plaster, only numbers 7, 9, 11, 12 and 13 are visible (the stud at position 10 is a 20th-century insertion of old timber). There are two diamond mortices in the wallplate for former unglazed windows on each side of the third post.

The original collar-rafter roof is substantially complete within a later roof of around 1600. The rafters (all unsooted) are numbered from right to left. At the left end is a couple with two collars forming the original gablet hip, with two slots for the rails of a protective bonnet. Some couples have been removed for an inserted stack, demolished around 1976, and beyond the former hip two couples have been inserted to extend the roof to connect with the adjacent building.

The floors of the two left bays have chamfered axial beams with lamb's tongue stops and plain joists of vertical section. At the rear they are inserted in the larger mortices in the girt remaining from the original floor. The transverse beam between these bays is chamfered with convex stops. The next two transverse beams, the axial beam between them, and most of the joists in this bay are 20th-century insertions copying the style of the remainder. The insertion and removal of a stack in this area has caused much alteration. The two bays at the right end have plain joists of vertical section and one chamfered axial beam.

In the rear wallplate is an unusual form of scarf, edge-halved and bridled, but with the bridles offset to avoid the mortices for studding. There is a 20th-century wide hearth built of old bricks. The roof is of clasped purlin construction.

The original span of the early 14th-century build was 3.28 metres on the first floor and probably about 2.82 metres on the ground floor if jettied, making this an exceptionally narrow house for its prominent position. Around 1600, a beam was lodged across the tie-beams to support the front rafters, and the original wallplate was sawn off, leaving a stub in situ at the left end. The front wall and floor structure were completely rebuilt 0.23 metres further forward and another roof was built above the original roof to accommodate the wider span.

The building is shown as three cottages in the Ordnance Survey First Edition map of 1873. An early photograph shows a shop window below the left end of the jetty.