Church Cottage

Church Cottage, formerly known as Church house, is a house dating from the early 16th century, likely remodeled in the 18th century and modernized in the late 20th century. It features granite rubble walls with large dressed granite quoins, while the south gable wall is rendered. The original layout has been significantly altered, but the 18th-century plan likely remains, consisting of two rooms and a central stair hall, with each room heated by end stacks. The building is two storeys high and has a symmetrical five-window front range. The windows are three-light 20th-century casements with glazing bars, likely fitted into 18th-century openings with squared timber lintels. The first floor center has a two-light casement, and the central doorway features a 20th-century plank door with a timber lintel, sheltered by a rustic wooden porch thatched in the 20th century.

The rear facade has asymmetrical fenestration, mainly concentrated on the right-hand end. The right-hand first floor includes an early 16th-century two-light granite-framed mullion window with four-centred arched heads, hollow chamfered with recessed spandrels, which may have been re-set. There are also two reconstituted concrete mullion windows from the late 20th century and three smaller windows. The rear wall may not have been rebuilt to the same extent as the front.

Inside, the interior has been much altered but retains three roughly dressed cross beams, two of which are in the right-hand ground floor room. The beam nearest the gable end rests on stone corbels at either end and features run-out stops and chamfers on both sides, possibly re-used. The 18th-century roof has eight bays with straight principals morticed at the apex and straight collars, lapped and pegged to the principals.

Walter Besant wrote some of his novels here. The house was originally granted by deed on 11 November 1597 to John Whiddon Senior and others for eternity. The last trust deed is dated 1809. As the house fell into disrepair, it was demolished and subsequently rebuilt as a poor-house at the parish's expense. This building is an interesting example of a Church house in a significant setting.