Churche's Mansion

Churche's Mansion is a timber-framed, black-and-white Elizabethan mansion house at the eastern end of Hospital Street in Nantwich, Cheshire, England. The Grade I listed building dates from 1577, and is one of the few to have survived the Great Fire of Nantwich in 1583. Built by Thomas Clease for Richard Churche, a wealthy Nantwich merchant, and his wife, it remained in their family until the 20th century. In the early 1930s, it was rescued from being shipped to the United States by Edgar and Irene Myott, who restored the building. As well as a dwelling, the mansion has been used as a school, restaurant, antiques shop, and granary and hay store. The building has an H-shaped plan with four gables to the front; the upper storey and the attics all overhang with jetties. The upper storeys feature decorative panels over close studding to the ground floor, and the exterior has many gilded carvings. The mullioned-and-transomed windows have leaded lights, a few of which are original. On the interior, the principal rooms have oak panelling, some of which is Elizabethan in date, with two fine overmantels; there is also a coffin drop. The architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner considered Churche's Mansion to be among the best timber-framed Elizabethan buildings in Cheshire, describing it as "an outstanding piece of decorated half-timber architecture."