The Old House

The Old House is a timber-framed house with brick additions, dating from the late 15th century. Its facades were largely renewed around 1600, with further alterations and additions in the 18th and 19th centuries, and extensive early 20th-century restoration. The building comprises a main range with two cross wings, the northern wing being rebuilt in the 18th century.

The main range has a timber-framed street front with close studding and brick nogging to the ground floor, and balustraded decoration above. It has two storeys and attics. A doorway is situated in the angle with the north wing, featuring ornately carved Mannerist posts with strapwork decoration. There is a six-light mullioned and transomed window to the right on each floor. An axial stack has star-shaped clustered brick flues. The rear of the main range was refronted in brick around 1800, with an eight-window range, outer doorways in moulded architraves, and twelve-pane sash windows with flat-arched brick heads.

The south wing is also timber-framed, with cambered ties and bracing in the north-facing wall, and close studding which may be a later modification. Paired gables face the street, featuring mullioned windows and a canted bay in the right-hand gable. An axial side wall stack is partly stone. The north wing was rebuilt in brick around 1800, displaying two storeys and a two-window range with twelve-pane sashes and flat-arched heads, as well as a blind window above the doorway to the right.

Inside, the entrance hall of the main range has a staircase with splat balusters and a moulded rail, modified around 1900 with the addition or replacement of dado panelling, newels, and an overarch with a pendant. A panelled room alongside the stair hall has an oriel window in the side elevation and a Neo-Jacobean fireplace. 17th-century panelling is also present in the front room of the south wing. Rooms at the rear of the main range were largely refurbished around 1900 with panelling and fireplaces of that time. Traces of an earlier layout survive upstairs, including a moulded cross-beam ceiling and partial 17th-century panelling. Raking wall posts carry chamfered cross beams of the ceiling in the front section of the south wing, alongside an 18th-century basket grate with a Delft-tiled surround. An internal partition wall has exposed framing, showcasing a jowelled corner post and arched braces.