The Laurels

The Laurels is an early 17th-century farmhouse, later used as a house, located on Church Road in Baschurch. It has undergone later additions and alterations. The house is timber-framed with red brick infill between the timbers, set upon a red sandstone plinth. The roof is slate. The building’s layout is an H-shape, featuring a hall range seemingly composed of two full bays with half-bays at each end, and two gabled cross-wings. It is one storey high with an attic. The timber framing consists of square and rectangular panels, with three panels running from the cill to the wall-plate, and long, straight tension braces to the cross-wings. The gable trusses are collar and tie beam construction with V-struts radiating from the collars. The windows are arranged in a 1:2:1 pattern; late 19th-century wooden mullioned and transomed windows are on the ground floor, while the first floor has 3-light mullioned windows, including in the timber-framed gabled eaves dormers. A central, flush 6-panel door is set within a plain pilastered doorcase topped with a bracketed open pediment. Red brick ridge stacks are located to the left and right of the hall range, and there is an integral end stack to the rear of the right gable. The interior has not been inspected, but is likely to be of interest.