Building record HTC 084 - The Old Guildhall, Hitcham

2009: Timber-framed house, which was originally a 15th C guildhall with an open hall. A service range was added during the early 16th C and after the guildhall was dissolved by Henry VIII in 1549 the building was further extended and used as a brewhouse and bakehouse known as The Cock Inn (S1)

2016: The Old Guildhall adjoins the southern side of the access track to All Saints church in Hitcham and is listed at grade II under the name ‘Old House’. The listing description notes that it is ‘said to be the former guildhall’ and it was renamed as such by the previous owner some ten years ago. The same owner added a number of single-storied extensions along with several outbuildings including a cart lodge and garage to the east. One outbuilding survives from the 18th or early-19th century, albeit much rebuilt, and is thatched like the highly picturesque jettied rear wing of the house which faces west towards the nearby B1115. This wing dates from the first half of the 16th century and is likely to have formed one side of an enclosed courtyard behind the main house. The latter was completely rebuilt in the second half of the 17th century and is tiled rather than thatched, with a standard domestic layout consisting of a central hall flanked by a chimney and parlour on the west and a service bay to the north. The jettied structure is typical of many utilitarian rear service wings found in local inns and merchants’ houses, originally containing three small rooms on its lower storey and two on the upper. The room adjoining the main house was a kitchen heated by a chimney that has since been removed and lit by an arched window that operated as a serving hatch. All three rooms were entered only from the yard, and a fourth door opened onto a stair leading to the larger of the two upper rooms. This original solid-treader stair remains in use and is a fine survival, although it has been reoriented to rise internally from a matching late-16th or early-17th century extension which abutted a large gable chimney and probably formed the brew-house mentioned in an inventory of 1670. Other fine features include original Tudor door arches and windows with diamond mullions. Whether or not this service wing belonged to a demolished guildhall rests solely on documentary evidence and is not entirely clear. Hitcham is known to have possessed a religious guildhall in the immediate vicinity before such guilds were abolished in 1547, but the present building was known as The Cock in 1620 when nearby Church Cottage to the east was still said to border a property called the guildhall. The service wing is highly characteristic of those found in Tudor inns elsewhere, but they are not normally found in guildhalls. Many guildhalls, however, adjoined inns to ensure a ready supply of food and ale at guild feasts, and the complete lack of rear windows in the service wing suggests it adjoined another property on the site of the small thatched shed to the east (S2).