Lanehouse Farmhouse

Lanehouse Farmhouse is a farmhouse, now a house, dating back to 1550, with extensions built around 1700 and alterations in the mid-19th and mid-20th centuries. The original structure is timber-framed with rendered infill on a brick and rubble base. A later brick extension stands on a handmade red brick base and features plain tiled roofs. The extension has parapet gables with ashlar copings and ball finials. The farmhouse has a hall and cross-wing plan. The hall section comprises two framed bays aligned north-west to south-east. The south-easternmost bay contains a large chimney with two diagonal brick stacks, indicating an original lobby-entry plan. A solar cross-wing with three framed bays is positioned at the south-east gable end. Around 1700 a brick extension was built onto the north-east side to create a new entrance front.

The building is two storeys with an attic and a cellar. The brick extension features a two-course band between the storeys, stepped on the south-east side, and also at eaves level at the gable ends. The timber frame exhibits close-set studding (two rows per storey) and short, straight braces in the upper corners. The first floor and attic are slightly jettied at the gable ends, with a moulded bressummer supported on shaped brackets. The roof structure includes tie-beam and collar and tie-beam trusses with close-set struts.

The north-east front elevation, which is the brick extension, features two bays with two-light casements on both the ground and first floors. The central entrance has a hood canopy on consoles, a moulded architrave, and a 20th-century door. Attic dormers in the gable ends have drip moulds. The cross-wing gable end has a three-light casement on each floor, with tiled weatherings beneath the first-floor and attic sill levels, the first floor weathering extending around the original part of the building.

Internally, the farmhouse was recorded as having two staircases: an earlier oak spiral staircase constructed like a masonry staircase and a larger, later staircase dating to around 1700, with turned balusters. Oak panelling is present on both floors of the original hall. The attic was used for cheese storage, and some original pulley equipment survives. The south-east elevation of the cross-wing retains an original dormer window with a five-light mullion and transom, and a similar window is located on the ground floor of the rear gable end. The brick addition also retains original mullion and transom windows with fixed glazing and ornate catches on its side elevations. The date "1550" is inscribed on the side of the cross-wing. The farmhouse is considered a particularly good example of its type, with its timbers surviving in their original, untreated condition.