Bridge End House

Bridge End House is a house, dated over a former cross-passage entrance to 1690 (Addison), with subsequent alterations. It bears inscriptions indicating ownership by E.A. Addison (and his son and wife), and a formerly visible date of 1792, alongside further early 19th century and mid-19th century extensions. The exterior is rendered in incised painted stucco, featuring V-jointed quoins and an eaves cornice on a chamfered plinth. The roof is of graduated greenslate, with stone chimney stacks. The building is two storeys high, originally comprising four bays, with a single-bay extension under a common roof and a further right-angled single-bay extension added to the front. The left-hand entrance features a top-glazed panelled door set within a fluted, pilastered doorcase topped with a dentil cornice. Sash windows with glazing bars are set within painted stone architraves. The right-hand entrance has a 1690 bolection surround with an inscribed panel above. The interior doorway from the cross passage is chamfered and has a lintel inscribed “HE WISELY BUILDS WHO AFTER DONE DOTH GIVE THE POOR MUCH ALMS AND WELL HIMSELF TO LIVE, ROBERT VAUX 1690”. Rear walls feature extensively altered stone-mullioned windows, where mullions have been removed. One extension has a large 19th-century chamfered-surround sash window, with another sash window above displaying glazing bars, and set within a painted stone architrave which differs in style from the rest of the windows. A single-storey extension was formerly used as a shop and is now part of the main house. A former entrance in the gable wall, now a window, has a reused lintel inscribed “EX DONO ROBERT VAUX DE BROWNRIGG ANNO DOMINI, 1688”, taken from the demolished school within the churchyard. The two inscriptions from different owners in 1690 suggest the house was originally constructed in the 17th century by the Vaux family (of Brownrigg), with the 1690 date subsequently added by the Addisons.