House Adjoining Church Cottage To The West

This is a late 15th/early 16th century house, likely of guild origins, with later 20th century alterations. It is built of colourwashed rendered stone with a steeply pitched slate roof and brick chimneys at the ends. The house is part of the same build as Church Cottage. The original plan may have comprised two rooms and a through passage, with a large hall heated by a front lateral stack which is now missing and was formerly positioned approximately at the dividing wall between this house and Church Cottage. There’s a unheated room at the lower end of the former through passage, reportedly with a chimney breast at first-floor level. A single-storey wing at the rear left may have been a kitchen wing, forming an L-shaped plan, and a rear right outshut, probably from the 19th century and forming a U-shaped plan. The front has a symmetrical design with two windows per floor. The ground floor has 20th century 4-light windows with glazing bars, and the first floor has 2 windows, each a pair of 9-pane sashes in a common architrave.

Inside, the ground floor features massive cross beams with wide chamfers and wide run-out stops. The axial beams are largely original. A chamfered 4-centred granite archway, opposite the front door, leads into a rear courtyard, which is now roofed over. A similar granite archway leads from the courtyard into the kitchen wing, which has a rectangular stone chamfered window. The kitchen also has a large fireplace with a lintel. A staircase has been inserted between the kitchen and the lower end, running parallel to the rear wall, with a landing featuring a Chinese Chippendale balustrade, though the stair balustrade has been replaced. The first floor has early 19th century 2-panel doors. The left-hand first-floor room has a fireplace with dressed stone; the fireplace beam has been replaced. The attic has a fireplace with an ovolo-moulded beam. The roof structure comprises 5 bays of arched brace trusses with 2 tiers of threaded purlins and collars mortised into the principals. Some braces were replaced in the late 20th century, with repairs made using iron straps. The original ridge is concealed by late 20th century panels, but is said to be diagonally-set. A pitched stone path runs in front of the house. The survival of original 16th century joinery to the first floor and roof is unusually complete. According to F J Bone, there were several guilds at Stratton, including the “Fraternity of the Hye cross.” Parish records indicate the Church House was used for trading. Bone suggests the name ‘Church House’ may have referred to two or three adjacent houses overlooking the open space in front of the churchyard gates, and that these houses may still remain, originally called "Temple Stairs."