Tower House

Tower House, instantly recognisable today by the tower which gives it its name, was not always like that. It is believed to date from the late 16th or early 17th century when it was a single storey thatched cottage. Later another floor was added, probably in the 17th Century, and at some point it was joined to an adjacent property with a huge inglenook fireplace linking the two., It is believed that the house was occupied by John Crook in 1868 when, having completed building the new church of St Mary two years earlier, he restored part of the old church for a mortuary chapel and removed to it the tablets and monuments from the old church prior to its demolition. This accounts for the use in Tower House of materials from the demolished church, which include stone to build the tower, floor tiles in the hall and an archway, believed to be from the south wall of the chancel, in the garden. George East lived there from 1886 when he came to found the sawmill next door. Voice tubes link the ground floor with the tower. These are thought to have been installed by West Tytherley's Rev. Bourdillon to summon his housekeeper when he lived there in the 1920s.