Bushes Farmhouse

This is a timber-framed farmhouse, originally built around 1500, with significant extensions in the early 17th century and a restoration in 1933. The house is constructed with a timber frame, plastered with the frame largely exposed, and has a roof of handmade red clay tiles. It comprises a four-bay range aligned approximately north-south, facing west, with an axial chimney stack in the second bay from the south and an internal chimney stack at the north gable. A continuous jetty projects to the west. There is a three-bay extension to the east of the south end, also from the early 17th century, featuring a chimney stack in the middle bay against the south wall and hearths facing east. Lean-to extensions are present at the north end of the north-south range and in the angle where the ranges meet. A small, pitched-roof extension is located at the east end of the east-west range. The house has two storeys. The west elevation has twelve leaded casement windows—four on the ground floor and three on the first floor—all dating to the 20th century. The roof is hipped at the south end. The internal chimney stack has grouped diagonal shafts. The walls of the north-south range are close-studded with curved tension braces trenched outside the studs. The studs of the east wall are unweathered at the south end, indicating that a building has always been present in the location of the current east wing. Jowled posts are found in both blocks. In the two northern bays, the horizontal section of unchamfered joists are exposed, along with square, unchamfered axial corbel beams. Projecting pegs in one bay represent the 1933 restoration, as does an inserted partition. In the two southern bays, transverse and axial corbel beams have a hollow chamfer step and an ogee molding; the joists are plastered to their soffits. This room is lined with panelling dating to around 1600, with some reproduction pieces. On the first floor, hearths on both sides of the axial stack have depressed brick arches and chamfered jambs, originally plastered and now stripped, dating to the early 17th century; the south hearth also includes a small 19th-century grate. The tiebeam over the south room is hollow-chamfered. The roof is a crownpost roof with plain crownposts and curved axial braces, largely complete except where the axial chimney stack is inserted. Some original wattle and daub remains within the roof. The east wing features arched braces to wallplates inside the studs, which are not trenched. Four early 17th-century windows with ovolo-moulded mullions are present—one on the ground floor north wall, two on the first floor in the north and south walls, and one in the attic at the east gable. The roof’s construction is butt-purlin, incorporating many smoke-blackened medieval rafters. The house’s original design included a medieval open hall, with the long-jettied north-south range representing a fashionable parlour extension from around 1500. There is no evidence of a chimney’s original position in this range; the roof structure clearly demonstrates that the current axial chimney is a later insertion. An estate map from 1742, held by the owner, shows that Bushes Farm then comprised 143 acres, of which 42 were copyhold. The site is moated. Historical photographs show the house before and after the external plaster was removed in 1933.