Wheat Hall

Wheat Hall is a farmhouse dating from the late 14th century or early 15th century, which was remodeled in 1721, as indicated by a datestone, with later additions and alterations. The building features red brick that conceals a timber frame, partly constructed with cruck framing at the rear, and has a plain tile roof with raised verges. The original layout consisted of a 2-bay open hall with service bays at the west end and a slightly projecting 2-bay solar cross-wing at the upper end. In 1721, a 3-bay brick range was added to the front, and the cross-wing was extended to the north, creating the current U-shaped plan.

The farmhouse has two storeys and a gable-lit attic in the 18th-century range, with floor bands and a toothed eaves cornice. The front has three windows featuring glazing bar sashes, which replaced five infilled windows on the first floor and four on the ground floor. There is a central entrance with an early 19th-century pilastered doorcase, a four-panel door, and a rectangular overlight. The building includes an integral corner end stack on the right, an external stack on the back wall to the left, and a ridge stack from the former open-hall range. The datestone "W.D. (William Daker) / 1721" is located above the central first-floor window.

Although the interior could not be inspected during the re-survey in February 1985, it is known that the central truss of the hall range survives, featuring an arch-braced cruck (which has been destroyed on the ground floor) with a cambered collar and v-struts, and an Alcock apex-type L2. The first floor of the cross-wing has exposed close-studding with short straight tension braces on the side walls and the former northern end wall, although the framing on the ground floor has been destroyed. The roof has single purlins with curved windbraces, and both central and northern trusses remain, with cambered collars supported by three vertical struts from the tie beam (the central strut is now missing). The jowled wall posts have slightly arched braces to the tie beam. An unusual feature is a pointed-arched recess with a moulded stone lintel at the south end of the east side wall, which corresponds to a brick projection on the outside wall, though its purpose is unknown.