Church Cottage

Church Cottage is a house that dates from the late 14th century and around 1500 to 1530, with alterations made in the 18th century, 19th century, and around 1970. It has two storeys, although it was originally one storey with attics until about 1976. The house has a three-cell plan in an open-hall form and is constructed from timber framing with plaster. The roof is covered with concrete tiles and features an axial chimney, which was rebuilt in red brick during the mid-20th century.

The cottage has small-pane casements that were added around 1970, along with a gabled entrance porch that has a half-glazed panelled door. The core of the house is a fragmentary building from the mid to late 14th century, consisting of two bays. The main entrance doorway, which survives, has an arched head with a vigorous ogee shape and leads into a small open hall. To the right of the entrance is an open truss with a concealed arch-braced tiebeam, suggesting there may have been a croglofft where the current chimney is located. To the left, there is evidence of a crosswing that was demolished in the 19th century.

Around 1500 to 1530, a two-bay open hall with a service cell was added to the right. This open truss features an arch-braced tiebeam with braces rising from the shafts. Adjacent to the current chimney, which replaced an original plaster one in the late 16th century, is a second open truss. The service cell to the right has very heavy lodged first-floor joists and tension-braced close-studding. The end wall of the house is half-hipped. Part of the diamond-mullioned front window in the hall remains. The roof features square crown posts with thin two-way braces.

In the late 16th century, an upper floor with well-chamfered joists was added to the hall, along with a lintelled open fireplace supported by limestone piers, likely taken from the demolished Abbey of St. Edmundsbury. In the 18th century, a first floor was inserted into the 14th-century hall, and that structure was re-roofed. Major alterations around 1970 included a rear extension and a new higher roof over the entire medieval section.