Wycherley Hall

Wycherley Hall is a manor house, now farmhouse, located in Baschurch. The building dates from around 1400, with major extensions in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, followed by further additions and alterations in the later 17th century.

The structure is timber-framed with painted brick infill and later rebuilding painted black and white in imitation of timber frame. The roofs are slate, partly graded. The building rises to two storeys with attics.

The earliest part comprises a gabled range to the left with two framed bays formerly open to roof and a roughly central smoke bay. A porch was added at right-angles to the left in the late 16th century, and a long hall range was built to the right in the early 17th century. A cross-wing at right-angles to the hall range, with gables to front and rear, was added later in the 17th century.

The front gable of the medieval range was refaced in the 17th century, creating a 'double' wall. The medieval range displays two tall rectangular panels rising from the first-floor bressumer to the tie beam, with raking struts above and a king-strut from the collar. The ground floor was rebuilt in brick painted black and white in imitation. The late 16th-century porch is jettied to the first floor and attic, though its ground floor has been rebuilt in brick and the doorway infilled. The porch gable features herringbone decoration to the first floor with close-set vertical posts above, while the left side displays close studding and the right side square panels. The left side of the medieval range has irregular square and rectangular panels with large upward-and downward-swinging curved tension braces from the middle rail. The rear gable shows square panels, massive wall posts, and raking struts from a slightly cambered tie beam to the principal rafters.

The 17th-century two-storey porch to the right of the medieval range features tall rectangular panels to its left side, square panels to the right, and close-set vertical posts to the apex of the gable. The hall range and gabled cross-wing to the right, with a narrower gable in the angle between, are clad in brick to the front, painted black and white in imitation of timber frame. The rear gable of the cross-wing displays irregular square and rectangular panels with a queen-strut truss featuring V-struts from the collar. The left side has close studding, while the hall range shows a mixture of square and rectangular panels and close-set posts, partly rebuilt in brick. The narrow gable to the right displays a mixture of rectangular panels and close-set vertical posts, also with V-struts from the collar.

Windows to the front are mostly 20th century, except for 19th-century leaded casements to the attics of the cross-wing and narrow gable in the angle to the left. There is one window to each floor of the medieval range, one to the first floor of the porch with two to the ground floor flanking a 20th-century plank door, one on each floor to the hall range, cross-wing and gable in the angle.

The building features a massive extruded external lateral stack to the left of the medieval part with two detached diagonal shafts, a prominent external lateral stack to the right of the cross-wing, and a similarly large external stack to the back wall of the hall range with the top rebuilt in 19th-century brick. There is a 19th-century brick lean-to to the rear of the medieval range and a 19th-century brick lean-to to the right of the cross-wing.

The interior contains chamfered ceiling beams and fragmentarily exposed timber frame throughout the ground and first floors. The hall range has a chamfered cross-beam ceiling on the ground floor and several panelled doors. The principal feature of interest is the circa 1400 part, formerly open to roof. A roughly central recess on the ground and first floors marks the smoke bay, with timber frame visible to the back on the first floor. Central jowled wall posts are visible on the first floor with mortices for braces to the tie beam; sawn-off tenons are visible to the underside. A panelled door within a Tudor archway has been cut through the tie beam to the right.

The roof structure visible in the attic shows original single purlins, rafters, ridge piece and cusped windbraces. The centre truss has raking struts from a slightly cambered tie beam to the principal rafters. The front truss is not visible below collar level owing to the insertion of a second-floor ceiling. A timber-framed partition with wattle and daub infill behind the centre truss closes the smoke bay. The entire roof structure is heavily smoke blackened, particularly at the smoke bay. The 17th-century part of the house has wide boarded oak floorboards to the first floor and attic, and a queen-strut roof. The hall range may be slightly earlier than the remainder, as it retains a mortice for a middle rail to the wall post on the first floor to the right, suggesting there was formerly an external wall at this point.