Oakley House

Oakley House is a house dating to around 1600, with alterations made in the mid-19th century. It is timber-framed with painted brick and rendered infill, set on a rubble base and covered by slate roofs. The house follows a hall and cross-wing plan. The hall section originally comprised three framed bays aligned north to south, featuring a rear external rubble chimney and a rebuilt brick stack enclosed by a wing of one framed bay. A cross-wing of approximately two framed bays extends from the north end. The house is two storeys high. The timber framing consists of two rows of rectangular panels per storey, with long straight braces in the lower corners. On the west front, the first floor is jettied on a moulded bressummer and moulded corbels. The cross-wing gable end has a deeper jetty supported on two timber posts, originally underbuilt. The jetty gable displays a collar and tie-beam truss with four struts and a concave V-strut above the collar. The rear wing has a collar and tie-beam truss with three struts, and a V-strut above the collar. On the west front, the ground floor of the hall has two oriel windows; one with 19th-century casements and its original moulded base with a central moulded corbel, and the other with 19th-century multi-paned metal windows, the base of which is boxed in and plastered, and now has a 20th-century casement of two lights. The southern bay on the ground floor is open to form an archway for rear access. The first floor features two 3-light and two single-light casements. The cross-wing has two ground floor single-light casements and a 3-light first floor casement, above which is a plank weathering attached to the tie-beam. A central doorway has a half-glazed door, and above it is a Sun Alliance fire insurance mark, No 339138. The interior includes stop-chamfered main ceiling beams. The southernmost room is recorded as having original carved and enriched panelling, bearing the initials "KP."