The Church House
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The Church House is a fine two-storey granite building in Widecombe-in-the-Moor, Newton Abbot, Devon, England, dating from 1537, which stands alongside the church, overlooking the tiny village square. It is a National Trust property.
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[edit] Overview
The Church House is thought to have originally been built as a brewery for the production of church ales, and became adapted as an almshouse, and later as the village school. Today, it is used as a meeting place for local people.
Sexton's Cottage forms the western end of the building and is now a National Trust shop and Dartmoor National Park information point.
Standing in front of the building is a 15-inch naval shell, which was donated to the village after the First World War to thank the villagers for supplying troops with sphagnum moss. This grows in abundance in the damp Dartmoor conditions, and is said to have healing properties. It was used as an emergency field dressing for injured troops.
[edit] Other properties of the same name
Another Dartmoor Church House can be found at South Tawton on the north side of the moor. This small, robust late 15th–early 16th century building was built of granite and has a thatched roof. Lying just inside the northern edge of Dartmoor National Park, at the heart of the village of South Tawton, it is a Grade II* Listed historic building.
A special feature is the roof structure, which preserves cruck trusses and rare smoke-blackened thatch.
