Little Chilton Farmhouse, And Mounting Block Attached

Little Chilton Farmhouse, located adjacent to a deserted medieval village, is a house dating probably from the 14th century with significant alterations and additions in the late medieval period and the 19th century. The exterior is pebble-dashed render with painted ashlar dressings, topped with a Welsh slate roof and overlapping stone gable copings. The house follows a cross-passage T-plan, with a later 19th-century rear wing added to the left return.

The main facade is two storeys high with five windows. A symmetrical two-storey, one-bay wing is on the left return, alongside a lower two-storey, one-bay wing to the left of the passage. A single-storey, one-bay extension is to the right. The left section has a central six-panel door with a small overlight in a simple pedimented surround, featuring Tuscan pilasters. Flanking double-sash windows have wedge stone lintels and projecting thin sills; similar sills are present on the four-pane sash above the door and double sashes in the flanking bays. A two-centred arched doorway to the right of these features a four-panel door and shaped overlight, with matching double sashes in the adjacent bay. A 20th-century fixed light with an opening transom sits above the door. The roof is steeply pitched with ridge chimneys at the ends and to the left of the pointed doorway, and contains three small flat skylights.

The earlier rear wing features a sash window in the rear gable, with render above it cracked in a lancet shape. The eaves of this wing have been raised at the return to the third bay, with a chimney positioned mid-slope on the other side of the roof. The later rear wing has a rear stone-coped gable and end chimney.

Inside, a corbelled head is visible above the pointed-arched doorway, leading to a cross-passage which connects to an added longitudinal rear passage. A wall on the right side of the cross passage, reportedly concealing a sharp set-back at head level, curves away from the door. A large cupboard containing 18th-century coat-pegs and triangular-section blocks, possibly remnants of a stair, is built into the left wall. Wide, stop-chamfered joists are present, alongside six-panel doors in bolection-moulded surrounds. A room to the left of the wall displays a massive fire-beam to a stone chimney set against the passage wall, with a similar altered beam in the left-end room fireplace. A renewed stair is in the rear outshut against the earlier rear wing, while a 19th-century stair is in the second rear wing. The original stair's location is unclear, but may be represented by a half-arched curve over the cross passage, behind the chimney. The right gable wall is approximately 1.5 meters thick, containing a modern lavatory at first-floor level, while other walls are approximately 0.8 meters thick.

The roof structure includes two pegged kerb principal trusses with two levels of trenched purlins, the upper ones resting on protruding collar ends. Short king posts with longitudinal bracing removed are present, along with a renewed ridge, noting the former ridge rested on a cut at the side of the jowls. Some floorboards, approximately 0.3 meters wide, and a small door-frame in a partition between the right and left sides of the intermediate chimney, provide evidence of past partitions. Carpenters’ marks are long, indented Roman numerals.

The earlier rear wing, only partially inspected, displays arched tie-beams in the upper room.