Building record 1072400000 - CHURCH COTTAGE, CHURCH END

Grade II. Cottage. C17. Whitewashed rubble stone to right-hand bay and base of left-hand bay, upper part of left bay timber framed with large plastered panels. Gable end to left has whitewashed brick infill and external stack. Thatched roof with central stack. One storey and attic, two bays, 4-light wooden casement with twin top lights to left, door with boarded panels to centre, blank bay to right. Attic windows in gables (B1).
Located just ouside the NE corner of the churchyard, the E end of the building is of cruck construction. The W end of the original cruck building cannot be pinpointed, but is unlikely to be very different from the present end wall. Mixed truss construction is not unusual. Externally, it appears, from the position of the chamfer stops etc, that the building was originally timber framed over a 1.1m high stone sill. This framing, consisting of large square panels, is characteristic of cruck buildings. On the basis of other midland cruck buildings, it seems that the original building can be assigned a date in the mid or second half of the 15th century. The stack and corresponding floors were presumably inserted in the later 16th or early 17th centuries, dated by the fireplace and spine beams. The location of this building in the corner of the churchyard and the fact that it is of generous width suggest that it is associated with the church, possibly a priest's house (B2).