Latimer House

Killing time before a family lunch we drove through my home village. I used to pass this old house four times a day on my journey to and from primary school, on our way home we would often stop at the attached forge (just off the right of the photo) to watch the blacksmith at his work; the smell of burning hoof remains a fond memory of that time.

Latimer House (not Latimer's) is named after Bishop Hugh Latimer. It is a cruck framed thatched house whose exact age is unknown. It was extended into an "L" shape in the reign of Elizabeth I and the attached Smithy was still in use after the house was restored in 1936. Often wrongly thought to be his birthplace, the site of that house is thought to be some yards to the north.

It was the Sedgwick family, two sisters and a brother, who rescued the dilapidated house and returned it to a classic cruck-beamed cottage. They were well known in the village, especially the redoubtable Margery, who managed to persuade anyone to do as she wished. They were founder members of the local drama group, the Latimer Players, named after their house.