Listed Building record MDR10739 - Chantry House, Main Street, Melbourne

Chantry House, Main Street, Melbourne, originally a 16th century timber-framed house. 'Chantry House is four bays long and mostly three storeys high, built of stone with some brick and a tiled roof. The barn and outbuildings that belonged to the house are now separately owned. Kings Newton Chantry, first mentioned in 1238 as a chapel of Melbourne Church, is believed to have stood in Chantry Close, some distance north of Chantry House. Chantry House is likely to owe its name to having been part of the Chantry's endowment. The oldest part of the house is the west end, one end of a timber-framed house, built end-on to the street in the late 15th or 16th century. The present kitchen was added at the end of the 17th century, with a chamber above and cellars below, and was probably timber-framed. Very late in the 17th, or early in the eighteenth, century the rest of the house was built, converting what remained of the original house into a hearth-passage house. The staircase dates from the beginning of the 19th century, and a little later the dairy was built and the kitchen wing rewalled in brick. In the middle of the 19th century the whole eastern part of the front wall was rebuilt, the front wall raised, gables built to light a third storey, and the whole reroofed. Further, more minor, alterations followed.' (1) 'It seems that Chantry House was so named by a Victorian owner, Henry Orton, a potter, who took the name from a field on his farm called Chantry Close. There is no reason for thinking that Chantry House had anything to do with a medieval chantry.' (2) From the National Heritage List for England: 'SK 32 NE PARISH OF MELBOURNE MAIN STREET, KINGS 3/131 NEWTON 18.2.71 (North Side) Chantry House GV II House. C16 and early C18 with major alterations in mid C19 in Tudor style. Ashlar with plain low C18 plain first floor band to main front, with red brick and stone rubble to other elevations plus vestiges of square panel timber framing to interior. Steeply pitched plain tile roof with stone coped gables on moulded kneelers and C19 ashlar ridge, gable and side wall stacks, plus short pieces of moulded C18 stone cornice between the gables. Two storeys plus attics and four bays. Ground floor has a gabled porch with four-centred arched doorcase, plus dripmould, covering an early C18 moulded doorcase with moulded keystone and panelled door. To east there is a C19 2-light recessed and chamfered mullion window breaking into a blocked early C18 window with moulded surround and keystone, and beyond there is a similar 3-light window. To west of the porch there is a C19 bay window with 3-light recessed and chamfered cross window to front and moulded cornice with blocking course over. Beyond to west there is a tall recessed and chamfered C19 cross window set in re-used C18 moulded surround with keystone, which breaks through the first floor band. Above to east there are three C19 recessed and chamfered 2-light cross windows with dripmoulds, that to far east breaking into the first floor band. To west there is a small 2-light recessed and chamfered mullion window, set much higher up. To east above the cross windows, there are three gabled half dormers, the two to east with similar windows to those below and that to west with larger gable and a 3-light similar window plus a stone shield over. Beyond to west there is a smaller gable with a side wall stack to one side. All windows have single pane casements or fixed lights. Rear elevation has another early C18 moulded doorcase. Interior has a tall mid C19 room to west with panelled ceiling and cornice, plus re-used Elizabethan overmantle to fireplace. There is an C18 knopped baluster staircase and eastern room has large oak ceiling beams and a big inglenook fireplace with stone fireplace within, the lintel of which is inscribed 'AD 1673' and is probably re-used. Central bedroom and basement both have areas of exposed square panel timber framing belonging to an earlier house on the site. Listing NGR: SK3887326206.' (3)