Church Cottage

127/0/10006 18-AUG-03

WROXHAM ST MARY'S CLOSE CHURCH COTTAGE

GV II

House. c. 1830, extended to the north 1999. Red brick laid in English and Flemish bond; slate roofs; brick central ridge stack. PLAN: lobby-entrance. EXTERIOR: original part is 2 storeys; 2-window range. English-bond plinth course runs round building. East elevation with central brick porch with a 4-centred opening forming a recess in which is a 4-plank ledged door. One 2-light arched Y-tracery casement right and left, each with one opening leaf and external shutters. Verandah at first floor carried on circular timber posts. 2 similar first-floor windows with secondary tracery in the tracery head. Projecting eaves to the hipped roof. Central ridge stack. South elevation is a narrower 2-window range pierced by similar windows and with a continuation of the verandah. West elevation is also a 2-window range with 2 Y-tracery Gothick windows as before, that to the first-floor south with diamond and hexagonal glass quarries. 2-storey north extension of 1999 continues the pattern of the existing structure, including continuation of the verandah. INTERIOR: north ground-floor room with a chamfered spine beam and a late C19 cast-iron arched register grate within a plain timber surround. South room with similar fire surround and insert. One of the few examples of an eclectic house of c. 1830 in north-east Norfolk, combining the Italianate, Gothick and cottage-orne style, all fitted to a traditional lobby-entrance formula and probably derived from pattern books. Originally constructed for the Diocese as a house for the sexton, the house forms part of a group with the Church of St Mary (q.v.) and the Trafford Mausoleum (q.v.).