AT the April meeting, Peter Lee spoke about 'A very ordinary house'.

Peter had been looking for a house to buy when he saw a very ordinary house in Napton. It appealed to him because, behind its ordinariness, it had character.

When an old corrugated roof was removed, the old roof timbers were found to be still in place. Tool marks indicated that they were formed by an adze.

There was soot on some timbers, suggesting that there had once been a central hearth with no chimney, a sign of great age.

Samples of wood were taken for dendrochronology but results were inconclusive.

Peter researched church records, census returns, wills and documents from the diocese of Lichfield. He found a document from the time of Richard II, which said that John Brown of Napton bought seven acres and three rods of land in Napton.

John Brown had been a draper in Coventry, a rich man and a member of the Guild of the Holy Trinity. His wife's parents were wealthy white leather workers.

When they died John was able to buy the Napton land.

He built a house, owned strips in the common fields and constructed a dovecote. His son inherited and the family prospered. The house was enlarged from a very simple two-roomed dwelling.

Later, the house was sold to one William Hughes who, prospering from the wool trade, built a new chamber over the hall and added a chimney, stairs and two bedrooms, all around 1656.

The next owner was John Shipley, a stone mason. His descendants lived there until 1861 when a builder bought it and turned it into three cottages. Later Malin, a corn dealer, brought the lot, joined two cottages together, built a bakehouse then went broke.

Duckett, a baker, worked there for a time but then, because of a family scandal, the business closed. After the Second World War, the cottages were made into one house with three bedrooms and a bathroom.

The 'very ordinary house' gradually yielded up its secrets and through his research, Peter gained an insight into the lives and times of its owners.

The next meeting is on Wednesday, when Adrian Thornton will talk on National Parks.