Beggars Roost

Beggars Roost is a house dating back to the early 17th century or possibly earlier, with extensions and alterations made in the 1960s and rebuilding following a fire in 1975. The construction is of whitewashed rendered cob and stone rubble, with a thatched roof gabled at the ends. The building has a rear lateral stack and a right-end stack to the main block, along with a projecting rear stack to a wing.

The layout is in an "L" shape, forming two sides of a courtyard which, alongside Pitmans and the former wheelwright’s shop, contributes to a cohesive group within the churchyard. Internally, the layout has been altered, but the main block originally consisted of two rooms, now open plan, and may have been the hall and lower end of a three-room and through-passage house, or potentially a church house. A direct entrance leads into the right-hand room that contains a newel stair, originally external to the front wall but now enclosed by a 1960s front wing. The right-hand fireplace features a bread oven, suggesting the lower end room in Pitmans may have been of superior status if the two buildings were originally part of a single structure. A thoroughly modernised wing, at a right angle to the main block, was extended in the 1960s.

The front elevation has an asymmetrical 1:3 window arrangement. The wing has a thatched eaves detail with a brow over the first-floor windows. There is a 20th-century front door in the corner between the main block and the wing, with the windows being 20th-century 2 and 3-light timber casements with glazing bars. Inside the main block, there are deeply-chamfered cross beams and exposed joists. Two open fireplaces remain; one features stone jambs, a chamfered lintel with run-out stops, and a bread oven, while the other has a timber lintel and stone jambs. The newel stair has timber treads and risers. A surviving jointed cruck truss is found over the main block. Two 20th-century outshuts are located at the right end of the main block and to the rear of the 1960s extension.