Bunns Croft

Bunns Croft is a timber-frame farmhouse, dating back to the 15th century, with significant remodelling in the mid-16th century and later alterations. It was converted into two cottages in the late 19th century and is now a house. The structure is timber-framed with brick infill and some wattle and daub, with stone rubble to the rear. There are brick external stacks on the left side and at the rear.

The original layout consisted of three rooms, with a central hall open to the roof, flanked by a service room to the left and an inner room to the right. An early 19th-century one-bay extension was added to the right side.

The front elevation has a single storey plus an attic, with a four-window facade. The doors are plank, made from oak on the left and pine on the right, both set within ornamental bargeboard and finialed, mid- to late-19th-century lattice porches. Most windows are small-paned iron casements with original catches and stays. Two gabled dormers are present; the left dormer has an iron six-pane casement, and the right has a late 20th-century window. The rear elevation features a mid- to late-19th-century margin-pane window above an earlier nine-pane fixed casement in a blocked doorway.

Inside, plank doors are fitted with strap hinges and latches. The roof is supported by four pairs of full crucks within three bays, with evidence of a 17th-century remodelling of the external frame, associated purlins, and wall plate on the rear wall. Smoke blackening is primarily contained to the central bay. The cruck truss facing into the central bay from the left-hand bay is chamfered. This truss has an original timber-frame partition on the ground floor, with a stop-chamfered surround to a blocked 17th-century doorway and a chamfered surround to a first-floor doorway. Stop-chamfered beams and plain tenoned joists are found on the ground floor of the room on the left. Two of the original four beams from the mid-16th century coffered ceiling remain in the central room, exhibiting pyramidal stops to central roll and quarter-round mouldings. A stop-chamfered bressummer is present over the rear corner fireplace. The room to the right also has stop-chamfered beams and a stop-chamfered bressummer over the fireplace, which incorporates a bread oven.

The early 19th-century bay to the right has plain beams and joists on the ground floor, displaying evidence of former circular hatches likely used for drying hops, both in this room and the adjoining room to the left. The location where the hops were dried remains unknown.

Historically, Bunns Croft is a fine example of a cruck-framed dwelling, built according to the three-bay plan common in the region.