Church House

Church House is likely a late 15th or early 16th century house, possibly originally a vicarage, later used as a shop and then as a house. It has undergone alterations in the 17th century and the early and later 19th century, and was restored gradually during the 1970s and 1980s. The building is timber-framed with daub infilling, and has a plain tile roof.

The house comprises an open hall of one timber-framed bay built at right angles to the street, with a storeyed bay to the south end. A longer storeyed bay extends to the left end, which was formerly subdivided into two rooms and incorporates a cross-passage and stairs. There is an integral rear return wing to the left of two unequal-length timber-framed bays, with the eastern end of the wing reconstructed in the late 20th century. The lower part of the ground floor of the main range is underbuilt with red and grey brick, while the rest is close-studded. The hall has a higher midrail, secured with a tension brace to the right end of each storeyed bay. A jetty extends under the right gable end. The roof is steeply pitched with a hipped shape, with the left hip returning. A projecting rear stack is located in a short stone lean-to against the hall, and there’s a slender projecting brick gable end stack to the right. A multiple brick ridge stack sits at the rear of the storeyed left end bay, between the bay and the wing.

The fenestration is irregular, featuring four casements, one four-light to the left, one three-light to the right, and a smaller two-light to the hall. There is a remaining first-floor section of a 16th or early 17th century close-studded rectangular bay towards the center of the hall, which rises through the eaves with a 19th century four-light casement and a hipped roof. A blocked door is on the right end of the left bay, and a half-glazed shop door, with narrow margin lights, is near the front of the left gable end. A Sun Insurance Plaque is also present.

The interior features exposed timber framing, a moulded right end-of-hall beam, and plain crown-posts with two foot-braces at the ends of the hall, left end bay, and at the junction of the left bay and the left wing. Combed daub is visible on the front wall of the hall and left end bay. A 17th century stone fireplace with plain jambs is located at the rear of the hall, possibly replacing a left end smoke bay, and a later stone fireplace was formerly found to the east. An early to mid 17th century stone fireplace, with chamfer-stopped jambs, is located at the rear of the left bay. A small blocked window is present on the first floor of the left gable end. Later 20th century hand-built doors, windows, and fittings are also present.