Lancotbury

Lancotbury is a house dating from the early to mid 16th century. It is constructed with a close-studded timber frame, with painted brick nogging, and has a plain tile roof with gabled ends. Brick axial and gable end stacks are present. The original plan consisted of three rooms and a through passage, with a back-to-back fireplace in the axial stack heating the hall and parlour; the service room to the right (southeast) may have originally been unheated and has a later gable end stack. Only the hall and parlour chambers were originally heated. Around the 17th century, a stair tower was built at the rear (northeast) of the hall/parlour axial stack. A single-storey addition was added circa the 18th or 19th century to the southeast end.

The southwest front, now the rear of the building, has five windows, with the first floor jetted out on joist ends supported by jetty beams on curved brackets; both ground and first floors are close-studded. Various 19th and 20th century casements are incorporated, with a 19th-century 24-pane sash window in the centre of the ground floor, a blocked window to the left, and a panelled door to the right of centre. A lower hipped roof covers the single-storey extension on the right.

The rear elevation, now the front, is also close-studded with a mix of 19th and 20th century 2 and 3-light casements, a 20th-century panelled door to the left of centre, and a gabled timber stair tower to the right of centre with a later lean-to extension in the angle to the left.

Inside, all three ground floor rooms feature chamfered axial beams and broad chamfered joists with straight cut stops; the hall is distinguished by a chamfered cross-beam. The hall has a fire inside an ashlar fireplace with broad, moulded joists running into a large moulded Tudor arch lintel. The parlour has a smaller moulded stone fireplace and 20th-century panelling. Exposed close-studding, curved tension braces, and close-studded partitions are visible. The 17th-century staircase in the tower has chamfered newels and symmetrical turned balusters. In the hall and parlour chambers, there are moulded Tudor arch stone fireplaces, with the parlour chamber open to the roof. The roof structure includes jowled wall posts, tie-beams, and a clasped side-purlin roof, complete with common rafters without a ridgepiece.