Wright'S Farmhouse

TL 73 SW WETHERSFIELD LOWER GREEN ROAD (east side)

1/192 Wright's Farmhouse 18.5.78

GV II*

House. C14, altered in C16 and C20. Timber framed, plastered, roofed with handmade red clay tiles. 2-bay hall facing SW, with late C16 axial stack in right bay. Parlour/solar bay to left, with C20 single-storey extension to rear. 3-bay crosswing to right, C16 or earlier. Main range of one storey with attics, crosswing of 2 storeys. Ground floor, 3 C20 casements. First floor, 3 more, of which 2 are in gabled dormers. C20 door in gabled porch. Roof of main range has hipped gablet at left end. Large wood-burning hearth facing left; smaller hearth facing right, and 2 on first floor, all with depressed arches of brickwork, originally plastered, 2 stripped. The main range has sharply jowled posts and heavy studding. The late C16 inserted floor in the hall comprises 2 chamfered longitudinal beams with lamb's tongue stops jointed into a chamfered transverse beam with lamb's tongue-and-bar stops, implying the former existence of a timber framed chimney in the right bay of the hall. The joists are of horizontal section, chamfered with lamb's tongue stops, supported on pegged clamps. The left (high) end of the hall has wide display braces, and a doorway with 4-centred head to the parlour. Rebate for shutters of large hall window in rear wallplate. The original floor of the parlour/solar bay has plain lodged joists of large horizontal section. The roof is of crownpost construction, with cambered tiebeam, cross-quadrate crownpost and all collars and rafters, heavily smoke-blackened. (A report of 18.5.78 suggests that it is of hammerbeam construction, which is not apparent at the time of survey, October 1984, but may need further investigation). The crosswing has an original first-floor partition between the middle and rear bays, and a framed ceiling, chamfered with lamb's tongue stops, late C16 or early C17. The right wallplate of the crosswing has a well-cut splayed and undersquinted scarf, suggesting a C14 date, but the studding and bracing are more typical of the C16, indicating a C16 rebuild of an earlier structure. One panelled oak door with cockshead hinges, c.1600, probably introduced. This is an exceptionally well-preserved early medieval hall house, of unusual historical interest because of its completeness. RCHM 56.

Listing NGR: TL7393131278