The half-timbered building was built as a Guildhall protected by the Archangel Gabriel – the archangel who announced the Virgin birth to Mary to whom the building was dedicated – on an angle post surmounted by two dogs. It was reconstructed in 1874 as the headmaster's house for the adjoining Eye Grammar School when it was reduced to its timber frame and internally rearranged to accommodate the headmaster's family and 15–20 boarders. It remained the headmaster's house until 1965 when it became a shop and offices and then later a private house. The new decoration included a second angel besides Gabriel on the south-west corner.