Foresters House

Forester’s House is a house of around 1280, with alterations from the 16th century and an 18th-century extension wing. It is reputed to have been the residence of the King's forester for the Long Forest. The house is constructed of stone rubble walls, with dressed quoins and a moulded plinth, approximately 2 metres thick at the base and tapering. A later house extension is of brick and coursed rubble. The original structure appears as a rectangular block with gabled ends. The gable trusses are square panelled timber-framed with painted rendered brick infill panels and a central timber mullioned window. The roof is covered with plain tiles, replacing what was originally thatch in the early 20th century. An integral stone rubble eaves stack is located on the east side, dating to the 17th century.

The north-west side of the house has been partly rebuilt. The central doorway has a rebuilt round-arched opening with ball-flower decoration and a recessed boarded door. A 20th-century casement window is set in a moulded ashlar segmental-arched opening to the right. The north-east gable-end and the south-east side feature single windows with stone jambs, roll moulding, fillet, and scalloped bases and capitals, each with a single mullion. The mullion of the north-east window is made of roll-moulded stone, while the south-east window has a timber mullion. A small 13th-century window is situated on the north-east side at a lower level. The south-west gable-end includes three staggered 13th-century staircase slit openings on the left. Two wood casements are at ground floor level on the right, above a blocked 16th-century three-light wood mullioned window that sits over a stone-blocked 13th-century opening.

An 18th-century two-storey house with a gabled and hipped tiled roof is attached to the right on the south-east side. The south-west face is of brick on a rubble plinth with a brick dentil course at the eaves; there is also an axial brick ridge stack. It has a three-window range with brick segmental-arch lintels. A central boarded door is beneath a slate gabled open porch. The other faces of the extension are of coursed rubble with flat lintel openings. All windows are 20th-century multi-pane casements.

The interior of the house includes 17th-century partitions on the lower floor. Reset 13th-century large-section first-floor joists are visible. A first-floor hall contains a 17th-century square-framed partition incorporating three low-arched door-heads, 13th-century mullion windows with flanking internal seats, a partly blocked 13th-century corner winder stair built into the wall thickness, a later 17th-century winding stair, a 17th-century attic floor, and a three-bay triple-purlin roof.