Hook End Poultry Farmhouse

Hook End Poultry Farmhouse

A timber-framed house of late 16th-century date, extended in the 18th century. The building is partly roughcast and cement rendered, partly weatherboarded, and partly faced with early 19th-century handmade bricks in Flemish bond, and is roofed with handmade red clay tiles.

The plan is L-shaped, comprising a late 16th-century entrance range of 2 bays facing north, extended to the left by one bay in the 18th century, and a 2-bay rear range with a 16th-century axial stack in the front bay. An 18th-century external stack stands to the rear of the right bay of the entrance range, now enclosed by a catslide extension to the rear range. A small single-storey extension of 19th-century date has been added to the rear right of the rear range.

The entrance range stands 2 storeys high, while the rear range is of one storey with attics. The ground floor of the entrance range contains 2 windows of 19th or 20th-century casement type. On the first floor are 2 similar casements, and in the left extension a casement of which one half dates to the 18th or early 19th century with much crown glass, the other half being 20th-century. An early 19th-century flush 6-panel door with simple moulded surround provides the entrance. In the left elevation of the entrance range, on the ground floor, is an 18th-century wrought-iron casement with leaded diamond panes of early handmade glass. The rear elevation of this extension is jettied, featuring one straight bracket of handsawn oak, jointed and pegged, with softwood weatherboards above the jetty and mixed and plain boards below.

The right elevation of the entrance range is faced with brickwork. On the ground floor is a mid-18th-century sash window of 6+6 lights with some crown glass, positioned behind the brickwork beneath a flat arch of gauged brick. On the first floor is an early 19th-century sash of 6+6 square panes with a similar arch. The lower arch is broken and the facade is parting from the wall behind. The brickwork continues round the rear right to the stack. The left side of the rear range is faced with similar brickwork and has a gabled dormer above. The right side is cement rendered with one early 19th-century casement window of 6:6:6 lights with much crown glass and an original twisted wrought-iron stay, and one wide plain boarded and ledged door. The roof of the rear right extension is of handmade red clay pantiles.

The structural frame exhibits close studding with curved bracing trenched to the inside, and retains original wattle and daub infill.

The interior of the middle and right bays of the entrance range contains chamfered axial beams with lamb's-tongue stops and joists plastered to the soffits, with boxed axial beams above the upper storey. There are 6 internal doors of 18th or early 19th-century date, each with 2 panels of pine; above the rear ground-floor door is a plain borrowed light of 4 rectangular panes of handmade glass. In the left bay is an 18th-century 2-flight staircase with moulded pine handrails and closed strings, and turned balusters, which remains complete. In the right bay is an early 19th-century corner cupboard, attached to the wall, with a semicircular arch, dentilled cornice, applied garlands on the frieze, and stars in the spandrels, together with 2 profiled shelves. On the first floor are 2 closets retaining 18th or early 19th-century hanging pegs. The axial stack contains on the ground floor a large wood-burning hearth facing backwards, reduced for a stove, and on the first floor a blocked hearth facing forwards, now within a closet. The rear range contains 2 chamfered longitudinal beams with lamb's-tongue stops and joists plastered to the soffits, with some original wide hardwood floorboards. On the ground floor is a borrowed light of 4 panes of crown glass, including one bull's-eye, set in an 18th or early 19th-century frame, and on the first floor is a 17th or 18th-century borrowed light with rectangular leaded panes of handmade glass of various sizes. The roof of the entrance range is not accessible; the roof of the rear range has been rebuilt in softwood with a ridge-piece.

This building retains many early and unusual features which do not ordinarily survive, meriting special care.