Church Cottage

Church Cottage is probably a special-purpose building associated with the church, now used as a house. It largely dates to the 16th century or possibly earlier, with alterations and additions from the 17th and 19th centuries. The building is timber framed, with different cladding applied to different sections. The left section is clad in red brick, largely in Flemish bond. The right cross-wing has a red and grey brick facade in Flemish bond, though the rear features slightly older-looking brickwork. The rear wing to the left has a modified header bond, with flint and red brick dressings to the rear. The roof is covered in plain tiles.

The original left section comprises one relatively short and narrow bay. A two-bay cross-wing, dating to the 17th century, is set back from the front elevation and projects to the rear. A 19th-century rear wing fills the angle to the left. The cottage is two storeys high. The left section has a medieval cellar with an underbuilt jetty to the front and gable ends, and the tops of the front corner posts are exposed. A plat band runs through the brickwork, returning to the left and right sides. The left section’s roof is hipped to the left and right, with short ridges. The cross-wing’s roof is hipped to the front and rear, with a gablet to the front, and has lower eaves and ridge than the left section. The rear wing is hipped to the rear. A central rear stack is present in the left section. A formerly projecting brick stack, with an ovolo-moulded plinth to the flue, was located to the right side of the cross-wing.

The fenestration is irregular, including a three-light casement to the left section and a twelve-pane sash window in an open box, featuring a reeded architrave, to the front gable end of the cross-wing. A half-glazed door with a segmental head is set into the gable end of the cross-wing. A weatherboarded lean-to from the late 19th century, with a plain tile roof, abuts the left gable end of the left section; it was formerly the parish bier-house. A 19th-century flint lean-to with red and grey brick dressings and a plain tile roof is situated to the right side of the cross-wing, with a ribbed door and segmental head at the front end. Brickwork in the front elevation of the left section is dated DD169 (3/5).

Internally, the left section features two dragon beams with their inner ends only three joists apart, broad close-set joists and three stone corbels supporting the cellar. A brick fireplace with a bressumer is found on the rear wall. The cross-wing has axial joists and a red brick fireplace in English bond, also with a wooden bressumer. A chamfered brick plinth and shoulders are visible at the rear of the stack in the cross-wing. The house abuts the churchyard.