Church House

Church House is a 16th-century building in West Anstey, altered and extended in 1983. It is now a private dwelling. The building is constructed of unrendered stone rubble with a pantiled roof, the ridge being lower at the left end. A painted stone rubble stack with a bread oven projection is at the left end, and another axial stone rubble stack towards the right end.

Originally designed with a 3-room and cross-passage plan, the arrangement included heated rooms at each end and a small, unheated pantry to the left of the former cross-passage. In the 20th century, the rear staircase of the cross-passage and the partition to its lower side were removed. A second entrance was created directly into the left-hand heated room, which was made smaller by enlarging the former pantry and creating an axial rear passage connecting the two end rooms. A one-room extension was added to the lower right end. The upper floor, originally containing two rooms, once had separate external access from the graveyard via a doorway at the left gable end, now blocked.

The exterior features a 6-window range and 20th-century windows. A gabled stone porch and C20 doors are present, as is an inscription reading "HIH (?)" near the eaves of the original range.

Internally, the ground floor has been substantially altered in the 20th century. A chamfered lintel is above the fireplace with a bread oven at the left end. The right-hand room contains a chamfered cross-beam and head-beam grooved to take a plank partition with a central doorway to the lower side of the former passage. An unchamfered lintel is above another fireplace with a bread oven. The timber surround of the blocked gable end doorway on the first floor remains, apparently unchamfered.

The roof structure retains three pairs of jointed crucks, believed to be full crucks. Trenched purlins were replaced in the 20th century. Only the middle truss has a high, thin, slightly cambered collar and is closed with what appears to be an original clay daub partition. There is no sign of smoke-blackening.