Woolwards

This is a house dating back to approximately 1600, with significant alterations in the 18th century and extensions in the 19th and 20th centuries. The house is timber-framed and largely clad in 18th-century red and blue bricks laid in a Flemish bond pattern, with a roof of handmade red clay tiles. The main range has three bays facing Southeast, with an original stack located to the left of the right bay, behind the axis, and a 20th-century axial internal stack at the left end. A parallel range was added to the rear of the right half of the house in the 18th century, and a single-storey lean-to extension to the rear of the remainder was added in the 19th century. A cross-wing projects forward to the left, with a single-storey section behind it added in 1970.

The house has one storey with attics. The front features three 20th-century sash windows in an early 19th-century style, and three more are located in gabled dormers. The front door is a 20th-century replacement, an accurate replica of an early 19th-century door, set within an early 19th-century wooden doorcase featuring reeded pilasters and a patterned reeding above. There’s an 18th-century moulded wooden eaves cornice at the front. A straight joint can be seen where the brick facade meets the cladding on the right side, which overlaps it but continues with the construction of the parallel range; both brick facades are of similar style.

Inside, the two right bays feature chamfered axial beams with lamb's tongue stops, and plain vertical-section joists connected to the beams with soffit tenons. One beam has been cut to accommodate a staircase. Some joists have been replaced with machine-sawn hardwood since 1979. One wide wood-burning hearth facing has been substantially rebuilt since 1979, with a renewed mantel beam. A similar hearth facing on the left retains the original mantel and beam, re-bricked at the sides. The left bay has a chamfered transverse beam with run-out stops, along with 20th-century moulding and joists. Between the left and middle bays, an original storey post is rebated for a door. A face-halved and bladed scarf is visible in the rear wallplate. The original trusses are of arch-braced collar construction, without tie-beams. Two thin tie-beams have been lap-dovetailed to the principal rafters at a later date, and both have been cut to create inserted doorways. Clasped purlins incorporate straight wind-braces. An early 19th-century fire surround, with reeded jambs and reeding above, matching the doorcase in style, is currently stored in an ancillary building and may be refitted at the left fireplace, which is a 20th-century reconstruction of an earlier hearth and stack. Restoration and renovation work was carried out since 1979 by K Tredgett of Brentwood.