Appletrees

Appletrees is a house on the east side of High Street in Swaffham Bulbeck, comprising three distinct building periods that reveal its evolution from the medieval period onwards.

The earliest element is an open hall dating to the 14th or 15th century, constructed in timber-frame and rendered. It now has a stack and floor inserted from the mid to late 16th century. The open hall has a steeply pitched pantiled roof, hipped to the north, with a ridge stack of narrow red and yellow bricks. It rises one storey to an attic, with one dormer; the fenestration and a lean-to addition at the front are all 20th-century alterations.

A timber-framed parlour cross-wing extends to the south, dating to the mid or late 16th century, also rendered with a steeply pitched tiled roof and ridge stack. It is two storeys tall with two 20th-century windows to the gable end.

The third element is an early 17th-century kitchen wing to the rear, constructed of clunch with the upper half of the gable end in narrow gault brick. The roof is tiled with an original gable end parapet on kneelers. The end stack features grouped shafts set diagonally, characteristic of the early 17th-century period.

Interior: The open hall comprises two bays and three trusses, with a display truss surviving over the hall. The tie beams are cambered and the principal posts have thickened heads with mortices for arch braces to the tie beams. The rear wall is intact with a straight brace from the post to the wall plate. The roof is of crown-post construction, partly mutilated when the stack was inserted. The crown post is of columnar type with a square base, torus, chamfered corners, astragal and bell-shaped capital, with short curved braces to the collar purlin and collar. A substantial number of rafters have survived, lighter in scantling and less carpentered than those of the cross-wing. Both roof and tie beam are heavily sooted. The side purlin roof over the service bay incorporates timber reused from the original crown-post roof.

The parlour wing is a particularly fine example of its period, comprising four bays with exposed internal timber-framing of close studding in substantial scantling. Principal posts have jowled heads and tie beams are cambered. Serpentine braces occur in the side walls, similar to those in Mitchell Hall nearby. All rooms except one at first floor retain original ceiling beams with moulded joists and main beams. At ground floor the rear room has intersecting main beams with joists bearing five ovolo moulding. Other rooms have stop-chamfered beams. The stack is red brick casing over a clunch core. An inglenook hearth at the rear opens to a spice cupboard and bread oven. The front room has a fireplace surround of clunch with a four-centred moulded arch on a high base within a square head. At first floor is a similar fireplace surround with shaped base stop. Two original doorway openings and four ovolo mullion windows with iron standard bars remain in the wing. One window to a closet beside the stack contains a later diamond-leaded light fitted into the original opening. The ground floor front room retains traces of original red paint to the studs. The roof employs clasped through-purlin construction with paired wind bracing between principals and purlin.

The early 17th-century kitchen wing contains an inglenook hearth.