No 4                     Old Church Cottage, The Street.

Previously known as The Church Cottages and more recently as Church Cottage. The structure of the building contains elements that indicate that the original pair of cottages date from the 16th century.  There is no information available regarding the early history or ownership of these properties prior to 1737 when a major refurbishment was undertaken to enlarge the cottages by creating bedrooms on the first floors.  The builders involved left firm evidence of the time this work was carried out by pasting the front page of the Norwich Gazette for the week ending 16th July 1737 beneath plaster beside an inglenook fireplace.  The remains of the paper are now protected by a glass frame.  It seems reasonable to assume that this rebuilding work was carried out on behalf of the church which probably acquired the properties in 1736/7 with the aim of housing two poor families from the village.  This assumption is supported by the fact that the cottages were not listed as belonging to All Saints Church in a listing of 1735 but were included in the list of 1740. Research undertaken in 1995 has discovered the names of all the occupants of these properties from 1740 to date.  A further substantial renovation and 2 storey rear extension were completed in1997 when electricity and mains water were connected to the property for the first time.