Prayers Thorn

TL 72 NW SHALFORD EWEN BRIDGE ROAD (east side)

3/58 Prayers Thorn

GV II

House. C16, altered in C17 and C20. Timber framed, plastered with weatherboarded dado, roof thatched. 2-bay hall facing SW, with originally storeyed service bay to left, and originally unstoreyed parlour bay to right. Stack in left bay of hall against rear wall, c.1600, forming a lobby-entrance. Parlour bay extended to right approx. 1.5 metres in C17. C20 extension with thatched roof at left end, C20 single-storey lean-to extension with roof of corrugated asbestos at rear. One storey with attics. 4 C20 horizontally sliding sashes, and 2 C20 casements in gabled dormers. C20 door in lean-to porch with shingled roof. A beam of the inserted floor projects through the front wall inside the porch, tusk-tenoned. Jowled posts, heavy studding with curved braces trenched to the inside, clasped purlin roof with arched wind-bracing. The original partition between the hall and the parlour bay has been removed, and a C20 imitation unglazed window inserted in the rear wall on the site of a severed wallpost. All joists plain and of horizontal section. All the floor to right of the stack was inserted c.1600; one beam is chamfered with lamb's tongue stops, another is chamfered with lamb's tongue-plus-bar stops. The large wood-burning hearth facing to right has been divided by later brickwork to form 2 opposite hearths. The name derives from an estate clap of 1603, in which the property is named Prayers, followed by the name of the tenant, Thomas (misread as Thorn) Cleveland. This building is on the boundary between the parishes of Shalford and Wethersfield, but according to the Electoral Register it is regarded as being in Shalford parish. RCHM 36.

Listing NGR: TL7318128398