Stocks Farmhouse

TL 5664 SWAFFHAM PRIOR LOWER END (West Side) 12/180 No 1 Stocks Farmhouse (formerly listed as 19. 8.1959 Stocks Farmhouse, High Street)

II

House originally a C14 open-hall of which one bay and parts of two other bays survive. Parlour wing of four bays, added c1500 with gable end to road. This gable end was remodelled in early C18. The house has recently (1983) been restored and all the external features are of that date. The open-hall C14, is timber-framed, rendered with steeply pitched, tiled roof. The gable end, parapetted, was rebuilt in C17, of red brick and the open hall shortened. Two storeys. All the features on the exterior are of C20. Parlour wing, c1500, also timber-framed with gable end cased in gault brick, C18. Tiled roof with end stacks. Four bays and two storeys. Adjoining to the West is a single storey service range, C19 and of clunch. Inside. In the former open-hall the tie-beam of the display truss has been removed but the mortices for the arch braces are still visible in the principal posts. There is a partition wall between the hall and another bay now incorporated in the c1500 range which has a central post and curved downward bracing at both ground and first floor levels. The roof would have been of crown-post construction. The crown-post has been removed, but the sooted rafters with their collars have survived. They are laid flat. The closed truss in the roof is sooted on the hall side only. Part of the rafters from this roof continue to the South suggesting an additional bay to the C14 house. The original hall window has survived and is of 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 has a squint butted scarf joint with secret bridge and single edge peg. The parlour wing, c1500, is in four bays. The tie beams have arch bracing and the roof is of crown-post construction. The floors are of c1500 but the first floor was open to the roof. There are three crown-posts remaining. One over the first and second bay closest to the road has an octagonal post with four curved braces to the collar and collar purlin. The other two are plain and have bracing only to the collar purlin. There is no smoke blackening. The framed partition walls are extended to the roof between the second and third, and third and fourth bays.

R.C.H.M. (North East Cambs.), p126, mon (23) C.A. Hewett. The development of Carpentry (1200-1700) an Essex Study, p185 (1969).

Listing NGR: TL5694364231