West Wycombe: Church Loft on High Street goes on market

The Church Room and Loft on the High Street is the oldest building in the village dating back to the 15th century and is being marketed by commercial property estate agents Philip March Collin Deung.

The building was originally used by pilgrims who stayed in it as guests of the church and has since been used as the village courtroom, jail and stocks.

The first floor (Image: Newsquest)

The site is timber framed, over two floors with an archway to Church Lane as well as home to the village clock that dates back to 1668.

It is said that, in the early part of the nineteenth century, one offender incarcerated in the lockup escaped by climbing up the clock chains and sped up the ticking of the clock becoming forever known as ‘Ticky Biggs’.

The doors to the jail (Image: Newsquest)

The site was restored in 1676 and was used by poor widows in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries before being an operating site for chairmaking but was in a dilapidated state by 1900.

It was restored again in 1914 as Belgian refugees were housed in the Church Room during the First World War whilst in the Second World War, it was used for evacuees from London.

The Church Room and Loft (Image: Newsquest)

Since then, it has been used as a church room for meetings, services and a Sunday school and in the 1980s a kitchen was fitted in order to serve refreshments.

The building – along with St Paul and St Lawrence church in the village – is cared for by a Parochial Church Council (PCC), who are local volunteers.

The inside of the clock tower (Image: Newsquest)

The council, however, are no longer able to afford to costs of looking after the building.

PCC volunteer, Alison Rimmer said: "We have known for years that we cannot face the financial responsibility and we are very worried that the building will deteriorate when it could be used for something else.

"We are not selling it because we want to make loads of money. We are seeking it because we are looking for someone who can look after it and cherish it."

The ground floor (Image: Newsquest)

In recent years, the PCC has inquired locally to find a new landlord to take over the building but hasn’t been able to find a solution meaning it has now been put on the open market.

She continued: “We have made lots of inquiries with the national trust and local landowners to see if they could use the building and it has hit a wall each time.

“We have tried for years to do this locally but Covid-19 changed things so we really have tried to place it locally.

“We are very aware of how much it means to the community.

“The village clock belongs to the village and has done for centuries and whoever took on the church loft would need to undertake that as well.”

The PCC is now looking for proposals and is keen to hear from potential buyers on what they would do with the building.

For details on the building, call Nick Ball on 01494 680000.