Church Cottages

These cottages date from the 17th century and were altered in the early to mid-19th century. Originally a single cottage with a detached agricultural building, or possibly a longhouse, they are now three separate dwellings. The walls are rendered over rubble with blue lias returns, and the roofs are thatched, with a half-hipped section on the left and a cross wing on the right. The roof sweeps down as a catslide to form a verandah in the centre, and the roofridge drops down between two central brick stacks; another brick stack rises from the eaves on the right return. The building has an irregular plan consisting of a two-cell agricultural building now linked to a cross passage dwelling, with a narrow room between the stacks forming a shallow L-shape of two two-cell dwellings, and a shallow projecting wing to the right.

The cottage is one and a half storeys high and features irregular fenestration and wall breaks forward to the centre and right of the tallest stack. The windows are wooden, 19th-century Tudor arch headed casements with leading, including a three-light window rising from the eaves on the left, a dormer in the roof space centre right, and a window in the cross wing to the right. Ground floor windows include three-light windows flanking the entrance to No.1, a similar casement to the right of the entrance to No.2, and another three-light window on the ground floor of the wing. Number 3 is entered from the rear. A thatched porch covers the entrance to No.1, while a studded plank door is located centrally. There is an irregular three-bay verandah with a wooden porch.

Inside No.3, it is said there is a four-panelled compartment ceiling with steeply chamfered, stop-chamfered spine beams with run-out stops, a spiral stair beside a modern grate, and an unheated coeval room at the rear. No.2 has a stud and panel screen projecting from the rear wall, with a stair turret lit by a stone lancet window and a shallow peaked door frame leading to a passage running behind the stack. No.1 is reported to be featureless. The irregularity of the building was deliberately emphasised in the 19th century to create a picturesque appearance.