Church Farmhouse

The interior of this building is very difficult to interpretate and, as a result, its possible monastic origin remains speculative and its later history mysterious. The front range appears to have been considerably changed in c1600 with floors inserted apart from the first floor and a spiral staircase probably also of that date. Ground floor ceiling beams are cased; first floor ceiling beams with quarter-round mouldings and converging and lambs-tongue stops. There is a stair tower between the ground and first floor only, entered by a straight flight of stairs. C17 doors on the second floor, at the head of the stairs and in an original partition, this one has a shaped and moulded head. The basement has a large fireplace with a massive stone lintel, presumably the original kitchen hearth. The first floor fireplace on the left has clearly been added making a lobby inside to the original front door (now a window), the straight joint is quite plain and shows that the medieval hall fireplace was at the far (right hand) end of the room. Probably C17 doors between the two wings on the first and second floors. There are the remains of windows and fireplaces in the attic demonstrating that the building has been truncated. Kingpost roof structure said to be of the 1940's. The rear wing has on all floors above the basement a west gable fireplace flanked by recesses, lit by small rectangular loops. It seems likely that one of these recesses led to garderobes and the other to closets or strong rooms of a kind, there appear to be housings for door bolts on the left hand one. In the south and north walls there are late medieval windows with triangular recesses with small seats on the inside. These recesses are constructed with unusual cantilevered heads. The first floor north wall windows have slightly rounded heads and are chamfered on the outside. Each room has a fireplace with a massive lintel. First floor ceiling beams with deep chamfers and hollow stops. The top floor room has an open roof with triangular trusses which appear to be original. These three chambers seem best interpreted as being monastic dormitories, each originally divided into four cells by flimsy partitions so that each religious had their own space and window with seats, while the room was heated in common, with its own secure closet and garderobe. It is very remarkable that such an arrangement should have survived so completely. And yet it does not survive unchanged because the floor structure seems to date from the early C17 and the main floor beams seem to have been inserted (see Exterior).

Built of local limestone rubble in thin courses, with limestone dressings and Welsh slate roofs. The exterior walling is said to have had the render removed in 1973, the roofs were perhaps originally thatched. There are two separate wings both of four storeys but with the roof of the front wing apparently lowered, thus truncating the west wall attic windows after slate re-roofing in the 1940's. There are also differences in floor levels. L-shaped plan with a hall block facing east and a chamber wing facing south attached to the rear. Both these wings are single depth and the angle between them has been filled in by a two storey C19 building. The main east elevation of the hall block is of three storeys and garret, but the ground storey was originally a basement with a first floor hall above. The ground floor has three 3-light late C20 windows under timber lintels, these have enlarged the previous windows which were themselves insertions into what was probably a wall with no more than slit vents. The first floor has on the left the original entrance which would have been off an external stair. This has a 2-centred arch with a chamfered frame but it has been converted into a fixed lattice window in the late C20. To the right are two large C20 timber windows, 3-light with mullion-and-transom, each light having 6 over 2 panes. The relieving arches above show these to be ancient openings, but they are probably of c1600 and of domestic origin, rather than medieval. The second floor has two more windows as before placed directly above those below. Steeply pitched roof with coped gables and end gable stacks, both of which are rebuilt. The right hand gable shows a corbelled chimney for the hall floor and for the floor above. The left hand gable has an apparently ancient entrance to the basement on the right, a small window on the second floor and another in the gable, both with concrete lintels. To the left the wall extends to where it joins the secondary range. This 1m projection of the older wall may suggest a garderobe shaft. The rear elevation is partly hidden by the later two storey addition. There is a blocked window above and to the right the projection for the wheel stair. Behind this range is another three storey and basement range of almost equal size which was added to the front range as can be seen by the straight joint between them. This range remains to the full height with its original roof structure, but shows evidence of the current floor structure having been inserted after the walls were built as can be seen from the sunk squares in the wall which mark the position of the three main floor beams. The ground floor has a small medieval window on the left with dressed jambs and head but no cill. To the right of this are two large 2-light mullion-and-transom C20 windows with plain glazing. The two floors above both have three more small medieval windows, the one on the left, which is to the closet, being smaller than the ones to the chambers. Roof of lower pitch with smaller coping and with a large gable stack on the left, the upper part of which has been rebuilt in brick and considerably smaller in size. The rear wall is largely hidden by a later building, but four medieval windows are visible internally. The top floor windows are to the outside, but they cannot be seen from the ground. The west gable wall can only partially be seen but appears to be featureless. It has a lean-to privy attached to its base.