Drury'S Farmhouse

Drury’s Farmhouse is a house dating back to the 16th century or earlier, with alterations in the 18th and 19th centuries, and extensions added in those same periods. The house is timber-framed and faced with red brick in a Flemish bond pattern. Part of the exterior is plastered, and the roof is covered with handmade red clay tiles. The original main range, facing northwest, has two bays and a central axial stack on the right end. A two-bay cross-wing projects slightly forward to the right, and a similar cross-wing to the left projects further to the rear, with a stack on its left side. A single-storey extension from the 18th or early 19th century is at the rear of the left cross-wing, with its own axial stack, and a short 19th-century extension extends beyond that. A 20th-century lean-to conservatory is located to the right of the left cross-wing and as part of the first extension.

The exterior features, on the ground floor, two late 19th-century sash windows with three panes of glass each. The first floor has three similar sash windows. A central 19th-century double door with half-glazing is flanked by a tiled lean-to canopy spanning between the projecting cross-wings. The roofs of both cross-wings are hipped at the front. Two grouped diagonal shafts emerge directly from the roof of the main range. The rear elevation has one similar sash window and one 19th-century casement window on the ground floor, and one similar casement and one smaller casement window on the first floor. The rear part of the rear extension, now a farm shop, is built of red brick and incorporates 18th- or early 19th-century patterned plaster on what was originally an external wall of the earlier extension.

The forward projection of the cross-wings suggests that they were originally jettied, now underbuilt, and the hip roofs are 18th-century alterations to roofs that likely retain their original structure. The roof of the main range was raised to two full storeys in the 17th or 18th century, enclosing the platform of the earlier stack and part of the early 17th-century grouped diagonal shafts, leaving little or no original roof structure in place. This is typical of a late medieval yeoman farmhouse originally comprising a hall range and two jettied cross-wings, possibly of different dates, with a late 16th-century stack inserted at the right end of the hall range, the roof raised in the 17th or 18th century, and the cross-wing roofs altered to hips in the 18th century. Other external features are from the 19th century. A detailed internal inspection and analysis of the timber structure should precede any future alterations.