Stocks Farmhouse

This is a house, originally a 14th-century open-hall, located in Swaffham Prior Lower End. One bay of the original hall and parts of two others survive. A parlour wing of four bays was added around 1500, featuring a gable end facing the road, which was remodelled in the early 18th century. The house was recently restored in 1983, and the external features date to that time.

The 14th-century open-hall is timber-framed and rendered, with a steeply pitched tiled roof. The gable end, parapetted, was rebuilt in the 17th century using red brick, shortening the original hall. It is two storeys high, and all exterior features are of 20th-century date. The parlour wing, of around 1500, is also timber-framed, with a gable end cased in gault brick, and a tiled roof with end stacks. A single-storey service range of 19th century construction, made of clunch, adjoins it to the west.

Inside the former open-hall, the tie-beam of the display truss has been removed, but mortices for arch braces remain visible in the principal posts. A partition wall exists between the hall and one of the bays incorporated into the 1500 range, which has a central post and curved downward bracing at both ground and first floor levels. The roof would have originally been of crown-post construction; the crown post has been removed, but the sooted rafters with their collars remain, laid flat. A closed truss in the roof is sooted on the hall side only. Part of the rafters extend to the south, suggesting an additional bay to the original 14th-century house. A surviving original hall window has three arched lights in a square head with hollow chamfered mullions. The principal posts to the display truss also have similar hollow moulding. Each wall plate features a squint butted scarf joint with a secret bridge and single edge peg.

The parlour wing’s roof is of crown-post construction, with tie beams featuring arch bracing. The floors are from around 1500, and the first floor was formerly open to the roof. Three crown posts remain; one, over the first and second bays closest to the road, is octagonal and has four curved braces to the collar and collar purlin, while the other two are plain and have bracing only to the collar purlin. These roofs have no smoke blackening, and framed partition walls extend to the roof between the second and third, and third and fourth bays.