Hulletts Farmhouse

Hulletts Farmhouse

House, dating from the 15th century with late 16th-century additions. Timber-framed with rendered walls and hipped roof, partially tiled in peg-tiles, pantiles, and bitumen felt. The building has an L-shaped plan.

The exterior presents a complex arrangement reflecting its construction phases. A forward-projecting block on the west elevation has a hipped roof and a 19th-century rebuilt stack on the north side wall, with earlier brickwork visible at the base. Immediately to the north stands a two-storey forward-projecting stair tower with a lean-to roof. A substantial 18th-century two-storey lean-to extends along the north end wall, with the roof continuing from the hip in a catslide formation. The south-projecting block features a 20th-century door with upper glazing and simple 3x2 panes, surmounted by a lower single panel within a porch supported on timber posts. Windows throughout combine 18th-century frames with 19th-century horned sashes and glazing bars in 3x4 panes, except where later replacement has occurred. The stair tower has one 18th-century window frame with a 19th-century two-light casement. An out-shut on the north side has a 20th-century door and casement window. The south elevation, formerly the principal frontage, features a two-window range beneath a hipped roof, with a lean-to outshut to the east. All windows retain 18th-century moulded frames with later sashes of 3x4 panes. A 19th-century six-panel door, with the upper four panels now glazed, is set within a rustic porch. Two outshut windows are 20th-century casements with 2x3 panes. The east elevation is dominated by a hipped roof and principal stack, with an 18th-century lean-to to the north, weatherboarded and containing a two-light 20th-century casement. A full-length 19th-century brick lean-to with felt tiles carries a 20th-century door with upper glazing and three flush lower panels, alongside a three-light casement of 6x3 panes. The north end elevation shows an 18th-century lean-to with two 20th-century casement windows of 2x2 panes, and a 19th-century outshut with a 20th-century two-light casement of 4x3 panes.

The interior reveals complex framing sequences. The earliest block, a 15th-century north-south range to the east, displays stout widely-spaced studding with arched exterior bracing, unjowled storey posts, and cambered tie-beams with bracket-arched braces featuring step-stopped chamfers. Wall plates employ edge-halved and bridled scarf joints. The north end, now cut back, contains evidence of double-mullioned windows on both east and west sides of the first floor, with one window still intact and a window sill remaining at ground level. Flat-laid joists of this period have soffit tenoning, with a trimming frame around a later stack; the oversized joists suggest they were originally designed for a timber-framed chimney. A high isolated lintel beam above the fireplace remains as part of redundant framing. Three original plastered fireplaces survive, featuring four-centred arches with chamfers stopped high on the jambs.

A contemporary late 16th-century timber-framed range was added to the west side with a stack at the north end. Its floor joists are deeply sectioned with diminished haunched tenons. Some joists in the original eastern block were replaced with lamb's-tongue chamfer stops on the principal binding joist. The contemporary stair tower contains an octagonal newel post and a principal bearer of the landing with lamb's-tongue chamfer stop. At ground-floor level, a door was inserted diagonally between the stack corner and the centre of the stair tower, finished with a depressed four-centred arch and lamb's-tongue chamfer stops to the frame.

During 19th-century alterations, a north-south central corridor was created, leading to the front door and continuing at the junction of the two earlier building phases. This provided the symmetrical facade to the south front. Within the corridor, a principal post of the early block displays two rising display braces, indicating that a medieval hall originally extended from this high-end wall towards the west.