De Freville Farmhouse

TL 4652 GREAT SHELFORD HIGH GREEN (West Side)

18/71 No 31 (De Freville Farmhouse) 31.8.62 II GV

House, C15, C16, C17 and early C20. Timber framed, roughcast rendered with steeply pitched tiled roofs, one half-hipped, with C17 red brick ridge and projecting side stacks. Original plan of hall with crosswing at left hand, extended by a further crosswing at right hand in early C17 and now forming an H-plan. Two storeys. The hall range has a later gable to the front with the initials of Gonville and Caius College and the date 1907. Three flush frame hung sashes of sixteen panes in open boxing. The present main doorway is to a cross-passage between the hall and C17 crosswing. Panelled door with flat hood on shaped brackets. Left hand crosswing, C15, is jettied both to the front and to the internal side wall over what was the original cross-passage. There is a plain, unmoulded dragon beam on the corner and brackets to every fourth joist. Horizontal sliding sashes with early C19 panelled shutters at ground floor. At the rear of this crosswing is a timber-framed addition, now a kitchen, and C17. The right hand crosswing is also jettied to the front. Similar fenestration, shuttered at ground floor. Interior: The C14-C15 open-hall was demolished or removed in C16 when the present hall was constructed. However a pair of rafters, sooted and with the joints for the collars to a crown-post roof have survived. Some of the wall frame of the C16 hall is visible from the roof and shows close studding. The C16 roof was rebuilt probably in 1907. It is likely that the chimney stack is contemporary with the C16 hall. The ceiling of the hall has fine roll moulding to the intersecting main beams and to the lintel over the inglenook hearth. The crosswing at the left hand is early C15. Part of the original cross-passage survives at the rear of the C16 inglenook hearth. The jetty of the solar projects over this cross-passage, which is particularly wide and similar to that of Rectory Farm, Great Shelford (q.v.). The original partition wall and service doorways are intact, as well as a sloping floor for drainage. The roof is of clasped, side purlin construction with cambered collars and long straight bracing. The C17 crosswing has fragments of early C17 square sunken panelling of oak with an embattled cornice. At first floor there is a raised tie beam and shutter grooves to original window openings, now sealed. This roof can be contrasted with that of the other crosswing, and is of wind braced butt purlin construction. R.C.H.M: record card

Listing NGR: TL4609052579