The Chantry House The Dower House

The Chantry House or The Dower House

A building traditionally believed to be a chantry priests' house, but more probably a dower house for Dame Joan Sydenham, now used as a museum. Built in the mid-15th century and modified in the early 17th century, it is constructed of ham stone ashlar with a stone slate roof between coped gables with gabletted finials and stone chimney stacks.

The building is two storeys high. The south elevation facing the churchyard comprises six bays. The upper level features cinquefoil-cusped 2-light windows in hollow-chamfer recesses with flat arches and square labels in bays 1, 3 and 4 (the cusps of bay 4 have been shaved off); bay 2 is blocked. Bay 5 has a 4-centred arched single-light window with label, while bay 6 contains a 2-light window with uncusped pointed arches and incised spandrels under a flat head, also with label. The lower level has near-triangular arched moulded doorways in bay 1 and between bays 5 and 6. Bays 2, 4 and 6, along with two in bay 3, have 2-light semi-circular-arched light windows under flat heads and labels, with a matching single-light window to bay 5. Garderobes formerly occupied the space to bay 2 and between bays 5 and 6.

The west gable has a similar semi-circular arched light window below with label, and above it a deep 2-light cinquefoil cusped window with plain transome under a square label.

The north elevation also comprises six bays. Bay 1 features a blocked 2-light window below and is blank above, with a chimney stack with offsets and a pair of octagonal stacks with moulded caps. To the left of bay 2 and to bays 3, 4 and 5 are 2-light mullioned and transomed windows with pointed arched lights, incised spandrels and square labels at the upper level; a similar window without transome is positioned at lower bay 5. To the right of bay 2 stands an octagonal plan stair turret with a small doorway in the north face, a cinquefoil cusped light in the north-east face, and above a string of 3 pairs of lights with square labels to the north-east, north and north-west faces, surmounted by a battlemented parapet. To the lower left of bay 2 is a moulded pointed-arched doorway without label, and to lower bays 3, 4 and 6 are moulded near-triangular arched doorways, the latter notably wide. The north elevation also contains a segmental-pointed archway with a pair of boarded gates below, and above it two 2-light mullioned and transomed windows under labels.

Internally, the west half was formerly the first floor hall with services below. Following a 1923 restoration and reshaping, this space is now unified with a gallery around it. The open framed ceiling spans 5 bays with collar-trusses featuring 2 tiers of purlins and 2 rows of cusped windbracing. The gallery contains fragments of 17th-century work, including balusters. At upper level is a wide cambered-arched fireplace in the south wall, and nearby a triangular arched doorway to a former garderobe.

The eastern half appears to have contained a solar and principal bedroom on the first floor, reached by the stone newel stair in the north turret (the only former access to the first floor), with servants' rooms below. This section features 4 bays of a different roof type incorporating some kingpost and curved braced trusses with 3 tiers of arched windbraces, one inverted. Above are 2 timber-framed wattle and daub partitions with original doorways, and small sections of plink and muntin partitions. In the centre rood is displayed a fine 14th-century door of uncertain origin. The east rood to the first floor has a decorative plaster ceiling of circa 1625 with a central pendant and frieze. An almost flat-arched moulded fireplace of circa 1520 features an overmantel of 4 quatrefoil panels.

The unconventional layout is explained by its function as a dower house, for which purpose it was refurbished circa 1625. By the early 18th century it was used for stabling. It now serves as a museum with emphasis on cider-making.