Mainoaks

Mainoaks is a former farmhouse that has been converted into two tenements. The building has a core dating back to the 15th century, with alterations made in the 16th and 17th centuries, and further additions from the late 18th or early 19th century. It is constructed of sandstone rubble with ashlar dressings, which were used to refinish the original timber-framed house, and features slate roofs that are hipped on the wings on the west side.

The hall house is aligned north to south and faces west, with a slightly later cross-wing projecting forward to the south and a rear projecting wing to the north that has been altered in the 18th or 19th century. There is a former through-passage that backs onto a stack, with an additional lateral stack located southeast of the south wing and another at the east gable end of the north wing. The hall is a single storey with an attic, flanked by two-storey wings, and the south wing has a basement.

The building displays irregular fenestration. The north wing features a 3-light lunette with leaded wooden casements and a 4-light 20th-century window below it. The hall has a gabled dormer with 3-light part leaded casements and a 20th-century projecting canted bay below with 2-light cross-casements to the south of the stack. The south wing includes a part leaded cross-casement and a 19th-century 2-light casement with a segmental head below. There is a 19th-century part-glazed door, and the wooden sill of the former timber-framed hall is partly visible.

The gabled rear of the south wing reveals timber framing from the first floor, with swept braces connecting the tie-beam to the girding beam. A 19th-century 2-light stone mullioned window is located in the masonry gabled dormer at the rear of the hall. The east end of the north wing retains a large 19th-century bread oven.

Inside, the central hall was originally a 3-bay space with cruck trusses, although only the central truss remains intact. The truss is arch-braced with chamfered members and shows traces of smoke blackening. There is an inserted ceiling with chamfered beams and a resited, altered 17th-century staircase with turned balusters. A resited carved frieze above a door lintel in an upstairs room is dated 1629. The south wing features 3-bay collar-and-tie-beam trusses with swept wind-braces.