Champions Farmhouse

TL 63 SE FINCHINGFIELD BARDFIELD ROAD (east side)

3/1 Champions Farmhouse

GV II

House. Late medieval, altered in C17 and C18. Timber framed, plastered, roofed with handmade red clay tiles. 2-bay hall range facing N, with C18 external stack at right end, and 2-bay service crosswing at left end. C17 extension beyond, with C19 external stack at rear. C18 rear extension with axial stack, the whole forming a T-plan. 2 storeys. On each floor, one early C18 window of 3 lights and one of 2 lights, each with one wrought iron casement and rectangular leaded glazing, including early glass. C18 door with 6 fielded panels and 3 small lights, in moulded doorcase with pedimented hood on scrolled brackets. Plaster coving below eaves. Similar early C18 windows elsewhere - two 3-light windows in left return wall, and in right return wall one 2-light casement window and one of 2 fixed lights. The roof has been reconstructed in the C17 to form a continuous double-pitch, so that the crosswing does not appear as such externally. The interior has jowled posts, exposed close studding, and a cambered tiebeam in the crosswing, originally for a crownpost roof. The roof incorporates numerous re-used smoke-blackened rafters from the roof of the medieval hall, trenched for the collars of a crownpost construction. The parlour/solar end has been demolished; it is not clear whether the walls of the medieval hall are still present, raised in the C17, or whether the hall range was rebuilt at that time. This building is unusual in having undergone little change since the early C18; the windows, complete with spring catches, are of particular interest.

Listing NGR: TL6849931268