Little Fairing

Little Fairing is a house dating from the early 16th century, with extensions added in the 18th and 19th centuries. It is timber framed and plastered, with a thatched roof. The building has four bays facing west, which include a two-bay hall with an axial stack inserted in the left bay around 1600, a parlour or solar bay to the right, and a service bay to the left. There is a single-storey extension from the 18th or 19th century on the left side, and a 19th-century external stack on the right return wall. The house has one storey and attics, featuring four 20th-century casement windows and two additional diamond-leaded casements in gabled dormers. The front and right return wall display old lime plaster with sawtooth indentations. The roof is hipped at the left end and half-hipped at the right end, with original sprockets under the eaves. In the right return wall, there is one 19th-century horizontally sliding sash window with three lights.

Inside, the house has heavy studding with curved braces that are trenched to the inside, and a large wood-burning hearth. The hall features an inserted floor from around 1600, which includes a chamfered axial beam with unusual treble-convex stops and exposed plain joists of horizontal section supported on pegged clamps. The parlour or solar bay was originally floored, but this floor was rebuilt in the 17th century with a chamfered axial beam featuring lamb's tongue stops and exposed joists of vertical section, raised approximately 0.60 metres above its original position. The floor in the service bay is from the 19th or 20th century. There are diamond mortises for unglazed windows below the half-hip at the right end, and the rafters have trenches for high collars that have been removed, with smoke-blackening visible above the hall. The site slopes steeply from south to north, and the rising ground and floor levels at the right end explain the rebuilding of the floor at a higher level.