Church Cottage

Church Cottage, 28-30 Church Street

A reflected pair of 2½-storey late Georgian houses. No. 28 is pebble-dashed, while No. 30 has been scraped to reveal rubble stone beneath with flat stone arches. Both sit under a slate roof with roughcast end stacks, a pebble-dashed stack to the right of centre and a brick stack to the left of centre.

The entrances are positioned to the outer sides. No. 28 has a recessed panelled door with panelled reveals and tripartite overlight. No. 30 has a 19th-century replacement panelled door set in a shallow gabled porch canopy with barge boards. The outer bays feature tripartite small-pane sash windows across both storeys. The wider inner bays are gabled, with small-pane horned tripartite sash windows in the lower storey, a 12-pane horned sash serving a first-floor canted oriel window, and a small round-headed sash window with radial glazing in the attic. Above the entrance to No. 30 sits a square stone tablet carved with a low-relief Celtic cross. Between the two houses runs a passage beneath a flat stone arch, above which rises a large bullseye window with rock-faced dressings and radial glazing—externally belonging to No. 30 but internally connected via an interlocking plan. No. 30 has a 2-light flat roof dormer to the left; No. 28 has a larger 3-light flat roof dormer to the right.

The rear elevations are reflected in arrangement and feature three-window compositions, along with subsequent additions and alterations. No. 28's rear is rendered in whitened rubble. A central stair window of 12 panes without horns is flanked to the left by a 16-pane sash window and a lean-to structure against the garden wall to the left, first documented on the 1861 town plan. This lean-to houses a pantry and coal house at the back of the kitchen and contains 2 boarded doors and 2 casement windows. To the right of the stair is an added hipped lean-to with a 12-pane sash window. The upper storey carries a 16-pane sash window to the left, a 4-pane horizontal sliding sash window to the right of centre, and a 12-pane sash window set further back to the right. A central wide flat roof dormer contains a 4-light replacement window.

No. 30's rear elevation follows a similar pattern but has undergone more extensive alteration. The central stair window has been replaced by French doors opening to a lean-to conservatory. To the right are 16-pane and 12-pane hornless sash windows in the lower and upper storeys respectively. To the left of the stair is a replacement half-glazed back door, with 12-pane sash windows in each storey set back further to the left, and a smaller 12-pane horizontal-sliding sash window positioned above the passage. The attic contains 2 horizontal-sliding small-pane hornless sashes serving flat roof dormers, plus an added skylight. A 2-storey rear wing on the right side houses a kitchen in the lower storey, accessed via a panelled door to the left beneath a 4-pane overlight, with a 20-pane hornless sash window to its right. The upper storey of this wing has a small-pane canted oriel window carried on corbels. Further right stands a 1-storey projection housing a pantry and coal house, and a further projection behind it with 2-light windows and a boarded door in the end wall; all these rear elements are covered by a pent slate roof.

Interior

The entrance opens to a late 19th-century vestibule with a half-glazed door and overlight. Rooms flanking the entrance hall have simple wooden fireplace surrounds. At the far end of the entrance hall, a doorway with a reed-moulded doorcase and fielded-panel door leads to the stair hall. The open-well stair features plain balusters with square moulded newels topped by orb finials and pendants. A straight closed-string attic staircase with a simple balustrade serves the attic landing, where 19th-century panelled cupboards are located. The interior retains panelled doors to the principal rooms and boarded or plain panel doors to the attic spaces.