The Chantry

The Chantry is a chantry priest's house built for a priest serving a chantry founded by William and Joan Deniss in about 1463. The house dates from the late 15th century, with repairs carried out in the 1920s and 1930s and an addition from the 1930s. It is constructed of local flint rubble with a slate roof, gabled at the ends (the roof was thatched until the 1920s). The house has projecting end stacks with Beerstone weatherings to the set-offs and flint rubble shafts with moulded Beerstone cornices.

Setting and Plan

The house is sited below the church, about 80 metres to the north-east, and faces west-south-west. It has a two-cell plan, with the higher end to the south divided from the lower end and passage by a transverse partition that now rises almost to the apex of the roof and may originally have risen fully to the apex. The higher (south) end of the building is two storeys, the north end is three storeys, and the transverse partition is tiered as a series of plank and muntin screens according to the ceiling heights of the various rooms. The uppermost tier is a framed partition with plaster infill.

The higher right (south) end consists of a remarkably fine, tall heated hall, rich in carpentry. On the first floor above it, there is a heated chamber with a high-status two-bay arch-braced roof and a garderobe in a projection off the rear (east) wall. On the ground floor, the lower left end consists of a cross passage with a newel stair in a turret at the rear (east). The services were divided axially between a kitchen to the rear and a buttery to the front. The passage, kitchen and buttery are now one room, but evidence of the former partitions survives.

On the first floor of the lower end, a richly carpentered, heated room may have functioned as a bed chamber, and there is a plainer, unheated room on the second floor which was originally open to the arch-braced roof which has a chamfered finish over the lower end. A small closet, possibly a second garderobe, opens off the newel stair between the ground and first floor, and a flight of four steps leads from the newel into the chamber over the hall.

The architectural historian W.A. Pantin compared the ingenious planning of the house with the vicar's lodgings at Lincoln and Wells, the Old Court at King's College, Cambridge, the houses built by Abbot Selwood at Mells and the retainer's lodgings at Thornbury in Gloucestershire. There are two rather puzzling features of the plan: the first is the somewhat cramped stair and narrow doorframe leading into the grand chamber over the hall, where one might have expected a more generous entrance. The second oddity is the comparatively plain character of the upper tier of the transverse partition, which would have formed the north end wall of the chamber over the hall and contrasts with the richness of the moulded roof timbers — perhaps it was originally concealed by a hanging or decorated in some way: there are traces of red colouring on the studs.

1920s and 1930s Repairs and Extension

In the 1920s and 1930s the chantry house was repaired: this work is well-documented in a letter from one of the craftsmen to the present owner. Most of the windows were replaced with new timber casements with square leaded panes. Ties were introduced; these may have been removed subsequently. In the 1930s the house was extended by a block adjoining at the north-west corner. The position of the addition has preserved the integrity of the original building.

Exterior

The house is two storeys at the south end, three storeys at the north. The asymmetrical three-window west front has the door to the cross passage to left of centre. The 1920s doorframe has moulded jambs of re-used timbers; the front door with shallow-moulded planks and studs was also introduced at the same time. The original doorframe was moved back to form an internal porch in the passage: it is chamfered with a slightly pointed head.

The higher end (to the right) has two windows on the front, a two-light 1920s timber casement to the ground floor and a similar transomed casement to the first floor. The lower end, to the left of the front door, has one window to each floor: four-light to the ground floor, three-light to the first, two-light to the second. On the first floor the old house is linked to the new wing by a projection. The right return has a 1920s two-light casement to the first floor.

The rear (east) elevation has the garderobe projection with a catslide roof to the left and the gabled stair on the outer return. Between the projections is a blocked window opening for the hall window; parts of the original window may have been re-sited on the first floor to the right of the stair projection where a partly-blocked two-light transomed window survives, apparently made up of several different moulded timbers, the central moulded mullion probably a sill or lintel. The first and ground floor windows to the right of the stair are 20th-century timber casements. The right (north) return has a bread oven bulge adjacent to the projecting stack.

Interior

The hall, to the south, has a splendid ceiling of intersecting richly-moulded beams forming nine panels with cross-joisting. Four carved bosses at the intersections of the centre panel survive; three of the bosses are 1920s replacements, one is original. Barber's pole painting on the moulded beams is re-coloured, but said to follow original paint. The axial beams are supported on timber corbels at the south end. At the north end the bottom tier of the transverse partition rises as a plank and muntin screen with chamfered muntins with straight cut stops and an original doorframe into the cross passage. A narrow gap between the head beam of the screen and the ceiling is filled by a brattished timber plate which may be part of the 1920s repairs. The fireplace has a massive chamfered Beerstone lintel and chamfered jambs; the plaster has been removed from the wall exposing a relieving timber lintel above the fireplace, which has been partly-blocked by a 20th-century chimney-piece. The rear (east) wall of the room has a blocked recess with a timber lintel high up below the ceiling, presumably the position of the original window.

On the passage side, where the ceiling is lower, the transverse partition has a moulded head beam completing the plank and muntin screen. The lower side partition of the passage has been removed, except for a short section forming the internal porch. The screen between kitchen and buttery has also disappeared but mortices and peg holes indicate the former positions: the buttery was probably entered via the passage only. At the rear of the passage an original doorframe to the stair turret exists. The kitchen fireplace is also Beerstone with a chamfered lintel, jambs and a bread oven. The stair is a newel of solid timber baulks with some repair. Original doorframes survive to the lower end rooms opening off the stair.

The first floor chamber over the hall retains an original doorframe to the garderobe and an original door with a heart-shaped handle. The chimney-piece is blocked. The first floor room over the lower end has a fine ceiling of moulded intersecting beams, forming six panels, all painted white this century. The ceiling has been given extra support on the north and east sides: posts on the north side and a chamfered curved brace to the east. The transverse partition forms a low tier of plank and muntin screen on the south wall, the muntins chamfered and stopped, the headbeam at the level of the floor of the higher end chamber over the hall.

The second floor room has been re-partitioned. It is unheated and the transverse partition has a tier of plank and muntin screen with chamfered stopped muntins rising about one metre above the floor level. Above this, there is a framed partition which rises through the roofspace stopping short before the apex. A mortise in the headbeam, which has a birdsmouth joint with the purlins, suggests that the partition was originally full height. It is limewashed on the south-side but traces of red colour show on the timbers.

Roof

The roof is an outstanding survival. Three arch-braced trusses over the higher end, the end truss butting the south wall, with moulded braces, moulded purlins and elaborate moulded 'X' wind braces, which survive to the east of the ridge only. The lower end trusses are also arch-braced but chamfered, with chamfered purlins. There is a gap of about half a metre between the last moulded truss and the transverse partition.

The building is described with a ground plan and sections in W.A. Pantin's article, "Chantry Priest's Houses and Other Medieval Lodgings", in Medieval Archaeology, volume 3 (1959), pages 241–243, figure 87.