Standing quietly on Church Street, just opposite the iconic Pepperpot, No. 3 Church Street is one of Godalming’s most significant surviving domestic buildings. Modest in width but rich in architectural and social history, it offers a remarkable insight into Tudor town life and the prosperity of a Surrey market town in the 16th century.

Godalming had a market by 1300, always held on the site now marked by the 19th-century Pepperpot, which replaced an earlier 15th-century market house. This building also served as the Hundred House, where the hundred court was held, making it both a commercial and administrative focus. Its prominent position opposite No. 3 Church Street suggests this part of the town may once have been the very centre of civic life.

During the Tudor period, Godalming’s fortunes were closely tied to the textile trade. The town prospered through cloth production and associated industries. Contemporary accounts at the time of Queen Mary’s charter describe trade as flourishing, and it was during this period of confidence and wealth that many of the fine buildings along Church Street and the High Street were constructed, several of which survive today.

The two upper floors are jettied over the street, a distinctive Tudor feature that increased internal space while maintaining a compact footprint at ground level. The exposed oak framing creates large square panels, originally infilled with wattle and daub and finished externally with limewash. Although the building was plaster-rendered historically, to protect the wood, this was removed at a later date, leaving the timber frame visible today.

Decorative ogee-shaped curved braces on the street elevation add refinement and visual interest, a sign that this was a well-appointed home rather than a purely functional dwelling. The roof features large curved queen struts, principal rafters, side purlins and wide wind braces, all hallmarks of high-quality Tudor carpentry.

Throughout the building, the quality of craftsmanship is evident. Diagonal down-braces connect main posts to side rails and cross beams on every floor, while the timbers themselves retain clear evidence of pit sawing and axe hewing, where the oak was squared directly from the tree.

One of the most remarkable features of No. 3 Church Street is its two brick chimney stacks, which appear to have been constructed at the same time as the timber frame. These chimneys served fireplaces in both the front and rear rooms on all floors. According to the Surrey Archaeological Society, this is the earliest house in the county so far identified as having chimneys built as part of the original structure, a significant architectural milestone.

Inside, the building reveals much about Tudor domestic life. On the ground floor, diamond-shaped mortices beneath a side beam mark the position of an original rear window. This would likely have been unglazed, closed instead with a hinged or sliding internal shutter.

On the upper floors, mortices in the undersides of cross beams indicate the original timber partitions between rooms. Carpenter’s assembly marks remain visible on posts and joists, along with hinge fixings for doors, intimate details that bring the building’s construction process vividly to life.

The building also bears intriguing evidence of apotropaic marks, symbols intended to ward off evil. These include multiple interlinked “VV” or “VW” scratch marks cut into the window board of one window, along with numerous scorch marks on timbers beside doors and windows. For many years, these burn marks were assumed to be the accidental result of using rushlights or taper reeds for illumination. However, recent research archaeological consultancy Triskele Heritage has challenged this interpretation.

Their work suggests that the marks’ deliberate placement, often in draughty and impractical locations for lighting, indicates they were intentionally created as protective symbols, designed to guard vulnerable openings in the building against malign or evil spirits.