Summers Hall Farmhouse

TL 73 SW WETHERSFIELD GOSFIELD ROAD (south side)

1/153 Summers Hall Farmhouse

GV II

House. C15, altered in C18 and C19, Timber framed, plastered, roofed with handmade red clay tiles and slate. 2-bay hall facing N, with C16 axial stack in left bay, and two 2-bay crosswings. C19 extension at each end with slate roof. C18 and C19 extensions to rear. 2 storeys. Ground floor, late C18/early C19 sashes of 16, 12 and 16 lights, and one splayed bay, 4-16-4 lights. First floor, late C18/early C19 sashes of 12, 12, 9, 9 and 12 lights. 6-panel door, the top 2 panels glazed, with moulded doorcase and hood, late C18/early C19. The front wall of the hall has been raised approx. one metre to form a plain parapet with flat roof standing approx. one metre forward from the pitched roof. Crosswing roofs hipped at front. The interior is mainly plastered, but retains the medieval structure, exposed in only one first floor front room in the right bay of the hall. Here the front wallplate of the hall exhibits the rebate for the shuttered hall window, one diamond mortice is visible below, and some diamond mullions may remain in situ, plastered over. The left side wall of the right crosswing is close-studded with curved tension bracing trenched to the outside. Jowled post and central tiebeam of hall, severed for doorway. Above the ground floor, the binding beams of both crosswings are boxed in, and in the right bay of the hall a C16 inserted floor with one transverse beam and 2 longitudinal beams are also boxed in. The C16 large wood-burning hearth facing to right has been reduced for an C18 fireplace. The roof of the hall is wholly present, with central crownpost and 4-way bracing all smoke-blackened, with an C18/early C19 softwood roof above it. The roof of the left crosswing is of crownpost construction, but the crownpost and collar-purlin have been removed. The roof of the right crosswing is difficult of access, but appears to retain the original crownpost structure. The upper part of the C16 inserted stack has been rebuilt in the C18. Late C18/early C19 stair with wreathed handrail. This house has been comprehensively restyled inside and out at the end of the C18, but nevertheless retains the medieval arrangement - the entrance hall still on the line of the original cross-entry, one of a pair of service doorways still a door, the doorway from the hall to the parlour in its original position, the medieval roofs largely intact. The size indicates that it was originally a manor house.

Listing NGR: TL7409030283