Raf Club

CALNE

ST9970 CHURCH STREET 755-1/5/38 (West side) 19/05/50 No.41 RAF Club (Formerly Listed as: CHURCH STREET (West side) No.41 Masonic Hall)

GV II*

Priest's house or vicarage, now a services club. Early C17. Coursed limestone rubble, formerly limewashed, pantile roof with square stone stack with 2 diagonal brick shafts to left S gable end, brick stack to front right gable end and triple diagonal-shafted brick stack to central valley. Original stair and entrance destroyed c1948-61. 2 rooms deep with entrance passage positioned to right of front parlour, left-hand and parallel S ranges. 2 storeys; 3-window range. A 2-storey central splayed bay with a hipped roof has leaded 5-light ovolo-mullioned and transomed windows, with left-hand cross windows, right-hand lower and smaller mullion window, possibly a former stair window. Below it a fine C17 planked and studded door with strap hinges set in a chamfered semi-elliptical-arched architrave. The S range has a first-floor 3-light ovolo-moulded window with C20 glass beneath a heavy relieving lintel; reported to have a 4-course dovecote in one of the gables. INTERIOR: a through-passage to the right has a C17 rear door similar to that at the front, both doors are horizontally planked on the inside. The ground-floor front room (formerly 2 rooms) has an open fire to the rear wall with a stone surround, cyma-moulded mantelshelf and a flat arch with curved corners and sunk spandrels. A crossbeam to the left has mortices for a stud wall, 2 axial beams have runout stops. A C19 staircase rises to the rear left. The room to the rear service area, on a higher level, has an open fire with a stone surround backing onto the same stack. The room to the first-floor front has wide oak floorboards, a similar but smaller fireplace to the rear wall and the ceiling is divided into 6 irregular panels, some with drilled wattle holes, some with slotted holes, all with run-out stops. The room to rear, on a higher level, has an open fire with a stone overmantel. Collar truss roof with cambered collars. No access to the attic or basement, both said to have original features. The best surviving C17 town house in Calne, and a notable example of its type with a fine facade. (Wiltshire Buildings Record: Trowbridge: B167).

Listing NGR: ST9985970826