Church Cottage

Church Cottage, formerly listed as Old Moat House, is a house dating from the mid-15th century. It is an open hall house with a crosswing to the left; the parlour cell to the right was demolished in the 19th century or earlier. The hall has one storey and attics, while the crosswing has two storeys. The building is timber-framed and plastered, with exposed close-studding. The crosswing jetties on three sides facing the road and churchyard, featuring spur corner posts at two corners with shallow mouldings on the capitals, although one is missing. The underside of the jetty has a plaster coving that may have been added in the 18th century. Early 17th-century console brackets adorn the gable. The roofs are plaintiled, with the crosswing displaying 19th-century pierced and fluted bargeboards. There is an axial chimney, with the shaft rebuilt in 19th-century red and gault brick. The windows include 3-light casements from the 18th century and two 20th-century replacements. A late 18th-century or early 19th-century six-panelled door is located at the cross-entry position, with one jamb of the original doorway still visible, featuring a 2-centred curvature. The crosswing consists of two bays and shows evidence of wide mullioned windows at both the back and front. At the front of the west wall facing the churchyard, there is a blocked shop window with a 4-centred head, along with evidence of another adjacent window. The roof has coupled rafters. The open hall is divided into two unequal bays and retains a complete smoke-encrusted roof. It features a strongly cambered tie beam at the open truss with very heavy archbraces that have 4-centred arches and evidence of pilasters beneath. A cross-quadrate crownpost with 4-way plank braces is offset from the centre of the shaft. A plain inserted first floor in the hall, dating from the late 16th or early 17th century, has a binding beam lodged over the transomes of the original hall window.