Church House

Church House is a house incorporating a cottage, with origins in the early to mid 17th century and a refronting in the early 18th century, with 20th-century internal alterations. The main block is framed construction, its front elevation clad in weatherboarding that imitates rusticated stone, while the right return is tile-hung. The adjoining cottage is brick on the ground floor and tile-hung over framing on the first floor. Both have peg-tile roofs, and stacks with brick shafts.

The main block, facing south onto the High Street, is three rooms wide. The two left-hand rooms are heated by back-to-back fireplaces sharing an axial stack, and the right-hand room is unheated. The cottage, forming a rear right (northeast) wing fronting Windmill Hill, creates an overall L-shaped plan. Originally, the main block likely had a lobby entrance facing the stack, but this was moved in the 18th century to the right-hand heated room, directly accessed from the front door. A 20th-century staircase rises from the rear of this room, within the cottage wing. A flat-roofed, single-storey 20th-century addition extends to the rear left (northwest) of the main block.

The two-storey-and-attic exterior features a handsome, asymmetrical four-bay front with a parapet supported by paired brackets. A circa 18th-century front door with four fielded panels, a fanlight with spoke glazing bars, and a gabled porch hood on moulded brackets is located in the first bay from the right. A disused panelled door is at the extreme left end. Three ground-floor tripartite, horned sashes are set in 18th-century openings, with 6 panes over one in the centre and 2 over one in the outer lights. Three first-floor 16-pane horned sashes are present, along with a 12-pane horned sash above the front door. All windows have moulded architraves. The half-hipped roof has an axial stack with a moulded cornice. The right return of the main block has one attic window, a likely 18th-century three-light casement with square leaded panes, and a first-floor 12-pane sash. The cottage wing has two ground-floor windows: one 20th-century three-light casement and a likely 18th-century three-light casement with square leaded panes, and a large early 20th-century gabled dormer with a three-tier window.

The interior exhibits exposed carpentry, with evidence of timber repair and reuse. The left-hand heated room has a 17th-century fireplace with jambs of large sandstone blocks and a chamfered lintel. Exposed carpentry is also visible in most of the first-floor rooms of the main block, and a circa 1819 stick baluster stair leads to the attic. The roof timbers are concealed by plaster.

Church House occupies a prominent corner site in an outstanding village, situated opposite the church.