Built by Thomas Clease for Richard Churche, a wealthy Nantwich merchant, and his wife, it remained in their family until the 20th century.

in the xviiii yere of the reane of our noble queene elesabeth[4]The other remaining building signed by the craftsman Thomas Clease (also Cleese and Clayes) is the Queen's Aid House on Nantwich High Street, known for its inscription thanking Elizabeth I for her aid in the town's rebuilding after the Great Fire; he is also recorded as replacing roof timbers in St Mary's Church.

[6][7][8] His wife, Margerye or Margaret Churche, daughter of Roger Wright, came from another significant Nantwich family; she survived her husband, living until 1599.

[7] Standing on the edge of the old town, the recently completed Churche's Mansion survived the fire of 1583[1] which destroyed most of Nantwich east of the River Weaver, including the western end of Hospital Street up to Sweetbriar Hall.

[16] The mansion later fell into disrepair,[17] and in 1930[6] or 1931,[15] it was saved from dismantling to ship to the United States by Edgar and Irene Myott, who purchased the building and carried out well-regarded[b] restoration work over the following two decades.

[1] Restoration was still ongoing in 1953, when major repairs were carried out at the rear – where the damage to the timberwork had been greatest – reusing timbers from other sites; in honour of the coronation, one of the corbels was carved to depict Elizabeth II's head.

[1][15] During much of the second half of the 20th century the building was used as a restaurant,[15][19][20] and drew praise in the 1956/57 edition of Raymond Postgate's The Good Food Guide, for example, where its entry notes that dinner was served by candlelight and the menu included regional specialities.

[24] Churche's Mansion stands at SJ6562752150, near the eastern end of the modern Hospital Street, on the south side, opposite the junction with Millstone Lane.

[31] The protruding floor joists are concealed by plaster coving built up over shaped brackets and laths,[1][32] in a fashion described by Pevsner as a "speciality of Cheshire".

[15][33] The upper storeys of the front face have ornamental panels featuring several different decorative motifs, including roundels and diagonal ogee braces;[3][34] the side has timbering with a simpler herringbone or chevron pattern.

[1] On the front face these include an ape; a devil; a lion, symbolising Christ; and a salamander, supposed to give protection against fire.

[16][27] The hall – which the architectural historian Ronald Brunskill characterises as "vestigial"[30] – lacks both a screens passage[41] and any fireplace;[15][33][41] one part has a raised floor.

[6] Dore considers the hall would have been used for dining,[16] but in the light of the unusual lack of heating,[15][33] other uses have been suggested, including a passageway[41] and a showroom for Richard Churche's business.

[15] In the upper hall is a coffin drop, an opening in the floor covered with jointed boards and with a removable joist, allowing the lowering of large items that would otherwise be difficult to manipulate on the narrow spiral staircase.

[15][33][45] Formerly on display in the central hall was an elaborately carved Elizabethan cupboard or press, believed to form part of the mansion's original furniture, which was purchased by the Myotts in 1952 from Betton Hall in Shropshire (where Richard Churche had property); it bears the Churches' initials and crest, as well as carved heads believed to represent the couple, and the arms of Elizabeth I.

[15] Pevsner considered Churche's Mansion to be among the best timber-framed Elizabethan buildings in Cheshire,[2] describing it as "an outstanding piece of decorated half-timber architecture.

[28] Binney calls it "one of the most complete timber-framed houses in England", considering that the jettying and the way in which the different-sized gables of the front "jostle against each other" contribute to the building's "picturesque appeal".

[15] The architectural historians Clare Hartwell and Matthew Hyde consider the use of different decorative treatments across the front to "undermin[e] the symmetrical effect".