Pillar House

Pillar House is a house with a core dating back to the 14th century, featuring complex alterations from the 15th century and later, as well as remodelling from the early 19th century. The building has two storeys and three windows. It is timber-framed, with the front encased in early 19th-century gault brick, which includes flat pilasters at the corners and a dentilled wooden cornice at the base of the parapet. The front has a slated roof with internal end chimneys made of gault brick, while other roofs are covered with plain tiles. The early 19th-century windows have flat arches made of gauged brick, flush frames, and small-pane sashes, although the window in the slightly set-forward bay above the entrance is a well-painted dummy.

The entrance features a good early 19th-century doorway with a Doric portico, where fluted columns and pilasters support a flat entablature with triglyph enrichment. The entrance door has four panels and is recessed between panelled reveals, topped with an oblong fanlight that includes border panes. At the rear, a low wing faces the east window of the parish church, containing an open hall that may date back to the early 14th century, showcasing unusual features. The roof of this hall is heavily smoke-encrusted and consists of two very unequal bays. The open truss includes part of an octagonal crownpost with a simple capital and four straight square-sectioned braces.

Adjacent to the hall, a single-bay cell retains its roof, but both cells are otherwise quite depleted. A wing added at right angles, possibly in the early 15th century, is located beside the High Street and features widely spaced studwork with very long tension-braces. The two-bay solar has a complete original roof with a massive cross-quadrate crownpost at the open truss. In the mid-16th century, an upper floor of roll-moulded beams and joists was inserted into the hall, complete with a large fireplace in the cross-passage, and a further cell was added to the rear, which has a blocked window in the gable with moulded mullions. A short second rear wing was added around 1600.