Potter Row Farmhouse

Potter Row Farmhouse

A timber-framed house dating to around 1400, located at Mill Green Common. The building is weatherboarded and plastered, roofed with handmade red clay tiles.

The main range consists of 2 bays facing north with a central stack, measuring one storey with attics. A 2-bay cross-wing extends to the right with an external stack at the front left and a lean-to porch (roofed with corrugated iron) to the right of it. The cross-wing rises to 2 storeys.

The main range features one 19th or early 20th-century casement window and another in a gabled dormer, with a plain boarded door near the left end. Between door and window is a panel of painted brickwork, with wall plaster above a weatherboarded dado and weatherboarding to the left of the brick panel. A gablet hip at the left end abuts onto the stack. The front of the cross-wing was probably jettied but is entirely concealed by the stack and porch. The cross-wing has one similar casement on the first floor and one on the ground floor at its right side. The porch contains a half-glazed door and one 20th-century casement. A small area on the left of the cross-wing, above the main range roof, exposes one jowled post and heavy studding; the remainder is weatherboarded. The rear elevation displays 4 similar casements on the ground floor, one in a gable dormer, and one 20th-century casement on the first floor of the cross-wing. The cross-wing roof has a gablet hip to the rear.

Interior: The longer right bay of the hall displays exposed heavy studding at 0.84-metre centres with curved display bracing and large-diameter peg-holes for a former fixed bench. An original parlour doorway retains a mortice for a former draught screen (doorhead missing). A late 16th-century inserted floor comprises a chamfered axial beam with lamb's-tongue stops and plain joists of horizontal section supported on pegged clamps. A cambered tie-beam carries one of 2 deep arched braces reaching to within 0.40 metres of the ground, with 4 peg-holes for the missing front brace. A 20th-century grate is present. The upper room over this bay is wholly plastered to the soffits of the rafters and collars. The shorter left bay is largely occupied by the stack and access passage (plastered). The rear wallplate is exposed, chamfered with step stops. The left (service) bay has a plastered axial partition, probably original, and much of the original partition between it and the hall; it is unstoreyed. The hall roof is heavily smoke-blackened with no evidence of crownpost structure, appearing to be simple collar-rafter construction.

The cross-wing has heavy joists of square section jointed to the chamfered binding beam with unrefined central tenons. One of 2 curved solid braces to the binding beam (over 0.12 metres wide) is located in a cupboard below the straight stair. Storey posts have sharply cut jowls. The roof is simple collar-rafter construction with original gablet hip. A cambered central tie-beam is present, though its braces are missing.

Historical context: The house is well documented in the Petre archives. A survey of 1556 records a house 36 feet long, 17 feet wide and 12 feet high to the eaves with a tiled roof, corresponding closely with the present building, along with a holding of 12 acres. The Walker map of 1601 illustrates a house comprising a single-storey hall range with a door at the right end, 2 windows and a central stack, with a 2-storey cross-wing to the right. This house is exceptional in having undergone little alteration since the 16th century and in not having acquired lean-to and other extensions. It merits careful conservation.