White Gates

The house at White Gates dates to the early 15th century and has been altered in the 17th and 20th centuries. It is a timber-framed building, now plastered, with a thatched roof. Originally a 2-bay hall facing north, it has a 20th-century axial stack in the left bay, a parlour/solar bay to the right, and what was originally an unstoreyed service bay to the left. A one-bay extension was added in the 17th century, with an external stack at its end, and a single-storey flat-roofed extension was added in the 20th century. A 20th-century stair extension is at the front, with a hipped roof. The house has one storey with attics. Four 20th-century casement windows are on the ground floor and a single, long 20th-century casement is at half-height in the stair extension. The roof is hipped at the right end.

The house features jowled posts and heavy studding. The hall has a wide front doorway with a four-centred arched head, which has been re-set. The posts of the central open truss have chamfered attached shafts and chamfered arched braces. The original tiebeams and crownposts are missing. V-bracing is displayed at the ‘high end’; the front part is original, while the rear part was restored and trenched into the partition studs, and is now exposed. The former stack at the ‘low end’ has been rebuilt in the 20th century, retaining the chamfered mantel beam with lamb's tongue stops.

A 17th-century inserted floor consists of a chamfered axial beam with lamb's tongue stops and plain joists of vertical section, with some replaced in softwood. The service bay has 20th-century softwood joists. The 17th-century extension has a chamfered axial beam, plain joists of vertical section jointed to it with soffit tenons with diminished haunches, and an intermediate tiebeam that was severed for a doorway.

The roof is largely original, with heavily smoke-blackened rafters and collars in the hall and service end. The smoke-blackened laths and thatch also suggest the lowest layer of thatch has been undisturbed since the 16th century. The collar-purlin is missing. Elements of a gablet hip and a smoke vent remain at the left end, obscured externally by the later extension. This house has been converted to cottages and subsequently restored to a house in the 20th century. The group value context recognizes its historical significance.