Frieze Hall

Frieze Hall

A house dating from around 1500, with substantial additions in the late 16th, early 17th and mid-17th centuries. The building is timber-framed, rendered in pebble dash with front walls clad in brick and 20th-century pargeting. It has a peg-tiled roof and a rectangular plan with a narrower long extension to the northwest.

Exterior

The southwest front elevation displays two distinct units. The southeastern section features double gables with a minor intermediate gable. A central front door sits below under a simple gabled peg-tiled hood, bracketed to the wall, with upper glazing of glazing bars in 2x3 panes. A late 16th-century clustered cruciform stack with four shafts rises above. The ground floor has two 19th-century segment-headed windows, each with three-light casements of 2x3 panes with glazing bars (renewed in the 20th century). The first floor has two 19th-century three-light casement windows with glazing bars (2x3 panes each) and a smaller central casement window with glazing bars (2x3 panes). Two fixed lights with glazing bars and four panes light the roof space. The two major gable roofs are half-hipped with 19th-century shaped barge boarding carried over the simple central gable.

The northwestern range has a central 17th-century stack set to the rear of the roof apex, with the roof half-hipped. The ground floor contains three segment-headed windows, each with two casements with glazing bars (2x3 panes), and a door in a segment-headed doorway against the southeastern unit. The door has upper glazing with glazing bars (2x2 panes) and two lower simple horizontal panels. The first floor has three casement windows set above those below, each with two lights, glazing bars and 2x3 panes.

The northeast rear elevation of the southeastern unit features a single half-hipped gable, with the roof hipped back to the northwest. A cruciform stack on the rear matches that on the front elevation. The ground floor has two 19th-century sash windows with glazing bars (3x3 panes) and a 20th-century fully glazed door (3x4 panes) with a simple bracketed peg-tiled roof. The first floor has two sash windows as below and one 20th-century two-light casement. The roof space is lit by a 2x2-paned fixed window in the gable, and the barge boards date to the 19th century.

The northwestern range has a 19th-century three-light sash window (3x3 panes) on the ground floor and a door with a simple lean-to hood. The door has upper glazing with glazing bars (2x3 panes) and lower panelling. The first floor has three 19th-century sash windows (3x3 panes). A tall 17th-century stack emerges from the roof at the center, below the apex.

The southeast end elevation of the southeastern unit has one ground floor 17th-century three-light ovolo-moulded mullioned window (restored).

Interior

The oldest work, dating from around 1500, is the northwestern gabled unit of the southeastern block adjoining the northwestern range. It comprises a two-bayed cross-wing of a medieval hall which once extended to the southeast. A jowled storey post remains, with close studding and step-stopped chamfers on the principal binding joist. Below this is evidence of a studded wall with arched braces. One three-light mullioned window survives on the ground floor and one two-light window (probably for a stair) on the first floor. Further evidence exists of another window over the ground floor one, visible as a shallow groove and cut-away sill. The roof has a central simple two-way braced crown post over the central arched braced tie-beam, and the rear gable is hipped. This block appears to be a service cross-wing with buttery and pantry division and was originally jettied to the front. The terminal gable crown-post assembly is absent. It may also have provided a solar chamber as the single original wing.

In the late 16th century, a stack with ground-floor back-to-back fireplaces was inserted into the cross-passage area. The principal central storey post was cut away to receive the cross-wing fireplace, which has a timber lintel (partly restored) with a shield and stylised leaf decoration in a carved spandrel.

In the early 17th century, the medieval hall was dismantled and a block symmetrical with the existing cross-wing was constructed in its place, with a parallel gabled roof. The intervening area of the stack was given a chimney bay with a smaller central gable and lobby entrance door. The new block was well appointed with a rear three-light ovolo-moulded mullioned window on the ground floor and a similar six-light window on both floors, central in the southeast end wall. The ground-floor fireplace, though somewhat rebuilt, is wide and has symmetrical doorways on either side, probably original but with recut heads. Common joists are supported by two binding joists with lamb's-tongue stops, and common joists have diminished haunched tenons. The upper framing of this phase has internal straight bracing typical of the 17th century. The roof is of the clasped side-purlin type, with many members reused sooted rafters from the old hall. The roofing around the stack is of the butt-purlin type, with sooted rafters. One member is the old hall top plate bearing the joints of a large eight-light mullioned window, all sooted, with rafter seatings above.

The long range to the northwest is likely to belong to this phase. The central stack closely resembles the one in the southeastern block and cannot be far removed from it in date. Framing evidence is more obscure but shows primary braced 17th-century work with paired face-halved and bladed scarfs. Ground-floor room ceiling joists have diminished haunched tenons, lamb's-tongue chamfer stops and carpenters' assembly marks. A bread oven is said to have existed at the rear of the central fireplace prior to removal in 1923–24.

Historical Development

Frieze Hall represents a very clear modification of an L-shaped medieval hall house into a symmetrical facade-gabled house with central stack and door typical of the 17th century. The stair was probably contrived at the rear of the stack. As part of the same building programme, or very shortly afterwards, a long service range—virtually an adjacent central-chimney house—was added. It is possible that the expansion followed a unit system in which a family constructs adjoining but separate houses. However, the difference in appointment favours a service interpretation for the added long range. The additional buildings continuing the run of the northwestern range from the roof half-hip onwards are all 20th century and are not included in this listing.

Frieze Hall and the stable form a group.