Court House

Court House, Water Street, Martock

This building dates from the late 16th century, though it bears a stone panel inscribed with the date 1661, which is misleading. It was originally established as a school and later served as a court house. The building is shown as Church House on Ordnance Survey maps.

The structure is constructed of ham stone ashlar on the facade, with squared rubble to the sides and ashlar dressings. It is roofed in plain clay tiles between stepped coped gables, with brick chimney stacks. The building comprises two storeys with an attic, arranged across eight bays with irregular fenestration.

The windows feature hollow chamfer mullioned lights with four-centre arched lights and carved spandrels under flat arches without labels. The upper storey has two-light windows in bays one and two, with three-light windows to lower bays three, six, seven and eight. All lower windows are diamond leaded. Lower bay four contains a false three-centred arch doorway without label, above which is a large stone panel bearing the arms of William Strode of Barrington, who acquired part of Martock manor in 1637. The inscription reads "SCHOLA TRILINGUIS DEUS TRIN/UNI DEO GLORIA MARTOCK/NEGLECT NOT THY OPPURTUNITIES/FUNDATA ANNO DOMMINI 1661".

The south gable displays a two-light window with label at ground floor level. The north gable contains similar windows at first floor and attic levels, together with a first floor doorway approached by stone stairs with solid balustrade, probably dating to the 19th century and replacing an earlier stair.

The rear elevation features a near-triangular arched doorway with a two-light mullioned window over it. A projecting stair turret contains small stair lights. A 19th-century red brick extension is present, and another mullioned window was uncovered during works in June 1985.

Internally, the ground floor layout has been altered. The north room contains a chamfered cambered arched fireplace and a nine-panel ceiling with deep moulded beams. The south partition is a plank and muntin partition from elsewhere, replacing one removed in the 1970s. An adjoining room has deep chamfer beams with step and run-out stops, and an 18th-century beaded surround fireplace in the front wall. Traces of other plank and muntin partitioning remain, and a wide fireplace in the south gable features a chamfered timber cross beam, adapted in the later 20th century.

The rear turret contains a stone newel stair with a four-centre arched doorway to the landing. The first floor contains the former courtroom at the north end, which was undergoing restoration in June 1985. Window reveals display graffiti, some predating 1661. The north gable contains two four-centred arched doorways, one opening outside and one to the attic stair. The roof comprises arched collar roof trusses without windbraces, featuring an unusual scarfed joint to the collar ends typical of 16th-century rather than 17th-century construction.

The building was referred to as the court house when a school was refounded here in 1661-2. However, an earlier school was established in Martock in 1636 by Thomas Farnabie, the celebrated educationalist, and evidence of graffiti indicates the school operated in this location before 1661. By 1644, the "parish house" and "school house" were synonymous terms. The school closed temporarily in 1820, was re-endowed in 1832, but closed in 1860. It is said to have served as a poor house in the meantime. The parish purchased the building as the Church House in 1872. It subsequently housed a branch of the County Library before being sold as a private house in 1975.