Church House With Integeral Orangery

This is a late 18th-century town house, now offices, with an integral orangery. It was likely built around 1770 and is constructed of red brick with Ham stone dressings, topped with a Welsh slate roof. The roof has coped gables and brick chimney stacks. The main facade has two storeys, an attic, and a basement, with five bays. It features a high plinth with four plain basement windows in simple surrounds, rusticated quoins, and a strong dentilled cornice surmounted by a brick parapet with stone urns at the corners. The central entrance is accessed by a six-step sweep, leading to a six-panel door with glazed upper panels. It stands beneath a stone architrave with a keystone, and a dentilled pediment supported by bold console brackets. The windows are 12-pane sashes, with slightly elongated lower panes on the ground floor. These are set in architraves with central keystones; the centre window on the first floor has a segmental head with a Gibbsian surround. A two-light timber dormer window is set behind the parapet.

To the left of the main house is a single-storey orangery, built shortly afterwards. It has a brick facade and a Welsh slate hipped roof behind a parapet, and features an arcade of four semi-circular arched French windows with recessed panels above each window, all beneath a stone cornice and parapet. Internally, the left-hand ground floor room retains a good cornice and what may be the original marble fireplace; the right-hand room has lost its cornice but retains another early marble fireplace and a niche. The staircase appears to be largely original. At the rear of the building is an arched doorway and door, possibly dating to the 17th century, along with some stone windows with leading, one of which is cruciform in design. On the north side, a two-storey extension built of local stone exists - its date is uncertain. The house, along with another building on the site, was damaged by enemy action around 1940. Also on the site are two coach houses. This is considered to be the finest remaining town house in Yeovil and has been prominent in the town’s legal affairs, having been the home of Batten Family Solicitors since the 18th century. The Town Courts Mere was held in the north annexe until approximately 20 years ago; for much of the early 20th century, the resident solicitor was also Town Clerk.