Orpin'S House

Orpin's House, located on Church Street, is a late 17th-century building constructed from ashlar with a stone-tiled roof and rusticated quoins. The house has two storeys and attics, featuring two gables. It includes three windows with two-light casements that have stone mullions and architrave surrounds, and the windows are leaded. There are also two small square window openings, glazed with bottle glass, situated between the central window and the side windows on the first floor. A moulded string runs along the first floor level, and there is a moulded cornice at the attic floor level. The stone door surround is adorned with Tuscan pilasters, an architrave, a frieze with triglyphs and guttae, and a flat cornice. The entrance features a semi-circular-headed doorway with a keystone and imposts. Square ashlar stacks are present at the gable ends. Edward Orpin, who served as the Parish Clerk of Bradford-on-Avon for 40 years and died in 1781, lived in this house. He was the inspiration for Gainsborough's painting "The Parish Clerk," which is housed in the National Gallery. Orpin's House is part of a group of listed buildings on Church Street, which includes the Chantry, Little Chantry, Barton Orchard, and the Catholic Church of St Thomas More, as well as several other properties on Barton Orchard and Newtown.