Church Cottage And Parish Room

Church Cottage is a house dating from the mid-14th century, a rare example of a medieval priest’s house built close to the north side of the parish church. It was remodelled around 1520 and in the early 19th century. Attached to the west end is the Parish Room, constructed around 1840.

The house is two storeys and has two windows. It was originally built as an open hall house with an integral sleeping loft (croglofft), and was converted to a two-cell end-chimney plan around 1520. It is timber-framed and plastered, with a slated roof from the early 19th century. A red brick chimney, with tumbled weatherings, stands at the west end; the shaft above roof level has collapsed. There are small-paned casement windows and a boarded entrance door from the early 19th century. The house comprises only two bays; a smaller service bay would have been attached at the west end from the 14th century until around 1520. The hall was open at one bay, featuring a cambered tie beam with a pair of heavy arch braces forming a central open truss, and evidence of a knee-braced beam supporting the first floor. The original 14th-century floor joists are square and unchamfered. The north wall retains the original studding, widely spaced with long tension braces. At the west end is a blocked cross-entry doorway, displaying one of a pair of thick knees that formed a two-centred arched head. The wallplate features a long splayed scarf with undersquinted butts. The south wall was rebuilt around 1520 with close studding; a blocked hall window retains a very deep and once moulded cill and one moulded mullion. The 14th-century walling was painted with false close studding to match the later work. An upper floor was inserted in the hall at this time, featuring fine roll-moulded joists and multiple roll mouldings to the bridging beam and cornice. A partition wall, with a four-centred arched doorway, was inserted to create a parlour. A blocked, lintelled open fireplace is in the hall, and above it a chamber fireplace featuring a four-centred arch, a moulded surround (all in plasterwork simulating stone). The roof and east wall were rebuilt in the early 19th century.

The Parish Room is built of gault brick with a hipped slated roof. It is one storey high and faces west, with two small-paned windows with pointed heads and intersecting glazing bars in a Gothic style, and a matching arched entrance door.