Sewalds Hall Farmhouse

This is a manor house, dating back to the 15th century, with later additions from the 16th and 18th centuries, forming a ‘Unit System’ group. The house is mainly timber framed and plastered, with a roof of handmade red clay tiles. Originally, it comprised a hall house aligned approximately northwest-southeast, facing southwest, with two crosswings and a second house situated to the south, corner-to-corner with the main house. This arrangement allowed for separate households, typically different generations of the same family, to work the same land.

The house now comprises a two-bay northwest crosswing, a 15th-century central range of plastered brick replacing the former hall, built in the 18th century, a two-bay southeast crosswing from the late 16th century, and a late 16th-century house of three bays, joined to the formerly separate house. Internal chimney stacks are situated against the northwest wall of the northwest crosswing, at both ends of the central range, and between the northeast and middle bay of the smaller house. A single-storey extension was added to the northwest of the northwest crosswing in the 19th century, and lean-to extensions to the southeast blocks date from the 18th and 19th centuries. A slate-roofed canopy, supported by posts with arch bracing, covers both sides of the central range.

The southwest elevation of the central range features a central six-panel door and two early 19th-century double-hung sash windows of twelve lights, creating a symmetrical composition. Each crosswing has one early 19th-century double-hung sash window of fifteen lights on the ground floor and one 19th-century casement window above, maintaining approximate symmetry, although the northwest crosswing is smaller than the southeast crosswing. A 19th-century casement window is present in the northwest extension.

The northwest crosswing, disused in 1983, showcases exposed longitudinal joists of a horizontal section, jowled posts, curved tension bracing trenched outside the studding, a cambered tiebeam with arch braces, and mortices for unglazed windows. It has a crownpost roof, complete with axial braces only to the central crownpost. The central range contains a late 18th-century staircase, with a hardwood rail featuring two square balusters per tread and scrolled tread ends. The southeast crosswing exhibits a plain-chamfered beam with lamb's tongue stops, a face-halved and bladed scarf in the northwest wallplate, and a queen strut roof; the remainder of the roof structure is concealed.

The smaller house, now joined at ground floor level to the main house, has its lower northeast bay used with the larger house, with the remaining bays functioning as a store accessed externally. The smaller house also has jowled posts, bracing trenched inside studs, a cambered tiebeam with deep arched braces, and a queen strut roof, with face-halved and bladed scarfs in the wallplates. A large bread oven, complete with a cast iron door, is also present. An early type of water tank, made of wood and lined with lead, remains. A working pump dating from around 1900 is accompanied by a stone sink. An outside privy features a ‘Manor Closet’ with a glazed white earthenware bowl displaying blue lettering; this is a non-flushing direct discharge type, with a wooden seat and lid, and a lower seat for a child. The site is moated.