Petsey Farmhouse

Petsey Farmhouse is an H-plan farmhouse with origins in the early 16th century and 17th century work, including a porch dated 1634. The building has undergone substantial 19th-century alterations and mid-to-late 20th-century partial rebuilding.

The original structure is timber framed with red brick nogging, most of which is painted, though parts have been rebuilt in painted brick. It has a plain tile roof. The framing displays 16th-century close studding with a middle rail to the first floor and angle braces, followed by 17th-century small square panels (three from sole plate to wall plate) with corner braces and tension braces. The main range dates from the 16th century, while the eastern cross-wing was rebuilt in the 17th century. The building is of two storeys.

The hall range features a jettied first floor with a chamfered bressumer and brackets bearing carved ornament. The left-hand cross-wing has a jettied first floor with a moulded bressumer and shaped brackets from which ribs run down the framing to ground level. Above this is a jettied gable with a bressumer displaying quarter-round moulding and stops, while the gable end is rendered. A large brick ridge stack, consisting of four truncated shafts with projecting ribs, sits off-centre to the right. The left-hand cross-wing has an external lateral brick stack to the left and an integral brick corner stack at the rear incorporating two 19th-century shafts.

The south front displays a three-window elevation with 19th- and 20th-century two-, three-, and four-light wooden and wooden-framed metal casements. The central windows and left-hand ground-floor window retain 16th-century moulded wooden cills, though they have 19th-century surrounds. The south front has a probable 16th-century nail-studded boarded door off-centre to the right, fitted with strap hinges and a quarter-round moulded architrave. Above it is a moulded bressumer with billet ornament and a bracket to the right.

The 1634 porch is a two-storey timber-framed gabled structure with a round-arched entrance flanked by a pair of hewn brackets supporting the jettied first floor. The bressumer to the front is ornamented with billets and bears the date 1634. A 20th-century window occupies the first floor, with a carved head on a block beneath and evidence of a former moulded cill. The interior of the porch features chamfered joists with ogee stops. To the right of the porch is a lean-to timber-framed infill with a boarded door to the front.

The right-hand cross-wing has a segmental-headed boarded door and a 20th-century brick porch with a half-glazed door. Its gable displays an exposed collar and tie-beam truss with queen struts and V-struts. The rear of the western cross-wing and a further wing to the west have restored gables with parallel diagonal struts.

The interior retains significant historic features. The hall ceiling frame comprises very large intersecting chamfered beams with stepped stops, with chamfered and stopped joists throughout. A large fireplace, now blocked, has a chamfered and stopped lintel. The ground-floor front room of the left-hand cross-wing contains probable 16th-century wall painting in black on white, comprising two panels of foliage and grotesque motifs painted across the studs. These are now protected behind two pairs of doors. The first floor was not inspected at the time of recording.

Much of the outside walling has been rebuilt in the late 20th century, particularly to the north and west. The 20th-century framing has not incorporated the mouldings or ornamental details of the 16th- and 17th-century work, notably the west bressumer of the porch. A small 15th-century circular Jesse window, noted by Cranage and Pevsner, is no longer present in the house. At the time of survey in March 1986, the first-floor south wall of the hall range was undergoing rebuilding.