Church Cottages

Church Cottages is a row of three houses that were formerly a church house and poorhouse, possibly dating from 1536 based on documentary evidence, with alterations likely made in the 19th century. The cottages have slatestone rubble walls and a gable-ended slate roof, featuring a rendered axial stack with a brick shaft and two brick gable end stacks. The building appears to have served both as a church house and a poorhouse, with the left-hand end believed to be the church house due to its rear projection and winding staircase. Currently, the property consists of one and two-room cottages.

The exterior is two storeys high with an asymmetrical four-window front, showcasing early 20th-century two and three-light casements, some set in original chamfered stone window openings. The left-hand end has two 20th-century stable-type doors for Nos. 1 and 2, with a similar door for No. 3 located to the right of centre. A rough string course runs two-thirds of the way up the front wall, which also features a rough plinth. At the left-hand end, there is a rubble buttress with two offsets, adorned with a freestone shield carved with the arms of Nicholas Ayshford, one of the joint patrons of the building.

The interior was inaccessible during the survey, but a description from around 1960 by G.W. Copeland noted wide stone stairs, a corbelled oak beam, a plain plank screen, and open fireplaces in the left-hand end cottage, with no such features visible in the other cottages.