Chiswick House

House at Chiswick End, Meldreth

This is a timber-framed house of mid-16th and early 17th-century date, with rendered infill and tiled roofs. The structure comprises an original mid-16th-century main range with an early 17th-century crosswing added to the side. The building is two storeys throughout.

The mid-16th-century range is jettied at first-floor level to the front wall, with the jetty beam carried on joists with brackets to the principals. The ground floor shows exposed framing with some repaired studwork, including close-set studding with curved downward wall bracing halved over the rear of studs. At first floor, the framing and roughcast render date to 1898. The front wall features three 19th to 20th-century casements at first-floor level, three late 20th-century casements and a late 20th-century gabled porch at ground floor (to the lobby entry), and a reset late 17th-century two-panelled door. The doorway to the cross-passage is now blocked. A large square early 17th-century red brick ridge stack replaces an original mid-16th-century stack, and an end stack was added to the parlour in the 17th century.

The early 17th-century crosswing is also timber-framed and rendered, with a tiled hipped roof, two storeys, and a jettied first floor to the front. It has one late 19th-century casement at first floor and one late 20th-century casement at ground floor. Internal evidence suggests the house may have extended further.

Internally, the hall contains an early 17th-century inglenook hearth (repaired), constructed of dressed stone blocks to the base and soft red brick, replacing an original mid-16th-century hearth. A doorway in a four-centred arch stands at the side of the hearth, probably mid-16th century. The centre room is partly lined with early 17th-century square sunk panelling, some of which has been reset. The end room towards the road, probably the original parlour, has a 17th-century red brick fireplace. Painted directly on the brickwork above the hearth is the Royal Coat of Arms of the Stuarts on an orange-red ground. Fragments of 18th-century wall painting remain on three studs and a brace in the front wall of this room, originally painted over the plaster and structural oak timbers. The painting comprises an indecipherable text within a red and black border with black Roman lettering, beneath which are a Tudor rose and thistle, with a dying tulip painted on the brace.

At first floor, the rooms generally retain original partition walls. A tie beam in the original gable end has been cut, probably when the later stack was built. The roof is of clasped side purlin construction. The crosswing features ovolo moulding to two ceiling beams at ground floor, with short lengths of timber scarfed into their ends, suggesting the house possibly continued to the side of the crosswing. The crosswing ceiling has joists laid on edge. The kitchen inglenook, now blocked, is of the same date and materials as that of the middle room. At first floor there is an early 17th-century hearth of dressed clunch blocks with ovolo moulding and jewelled stops, containing a 19th-century cast iron fireplace with safety doors.