Troys Hall

Troys Hall is a house dating from approximately 1400, with alterations in the 16th, 18th, and 20th centuries. The house is timber-framed, with plastered walls and a roof of handmade red clay tiles. It originally comprised a two-bay hall facing southwest, with an early 16th-century stack in the right bay against the front wall, and a two-bay parlour/solar crosswing to the left. A further 16th-century two-bay crosswing was added to the right, extended to the rear by one bay in the late 16th century. A late 16th-century external stack is located to the right of the right crosswing. An 18th-century one-bay extension was added to the rear of the left crosswing, and a late 16th-century extension to the left of the left crosswing, with an 18th-century end stack, along with a 20th-century flat-roofed single-storey extension in the left rear angle. The crosswings are two stories high, while the remainder of the house is single story with attics.

The ground floor has four 20th-century casements and two early 19th-century tripartite sashes, each with a 4-12-4 light arrangement. The first floor features two 20th-century sashes and two 20th-century casements in gabled dormers. A 20th-century half-glazed door is present. Both crosswings are jettied to the front, and the right crosswing has a hipped rear. The house features jowled posts and close studding.

The hall has restored framing at its left end, an inserted floor with a chamfered axial beam with lambs’ tongue stops, and a crownpost roof, heavily blackened by smoke. The central crownpost has wide four-way rising braces, complete, with all rafters and collars still in place. The inserted stack is concealed by modern materials, but is reported to have blind arcading and other early features. The left crosswing has half-height jowls, a chamfered binding beam with step stops, and mortices for short braces. Two blocked unglazed windows are in the left wall on the first floor; one has three diamond mullions with shutter grooves and the other has diamond mortices for three mullions with shutter grooves. The roof is a cambered tiebeam with a crownpost roof and plain post with wide axial braces. The right crosswing has diamond mortices and shutter grooves for unglazed windows at the front and back, chamfered posts with square stops, a chamfered binding beam with step stops, a cambered tiebeam and a crownpost roof with an octagonal chamfer and step stops, along with axial braces.

The rear hip of the right crosswing is original and was moved approximately 1.50 metres to the rear when an extension was added, reportedly without alteration. The left extension has a clasped purlin roof which is lightly smoke-blackened, suggesting a short period of use as an open hall in the 16th century after the main hall was floored, or as a kitchen/bakehouse, with the external brick chimney showing evidence of smoke-blackening, suggesting some blackening may be due to leakage. The site is moated.