The Abbey

This is a large house, dating to the mid-16th century, with extensions added in the 18th and 19th centuries. It is primarily timber-framed and brick, with plaster and a roof of handmade red clay tiles. The main range, facing southwest, has an internal stack at each end, standing two storeys high with attics. A two-storey porch of plastered brick is centrally positioned at the front. The building’s layout comprises a complex series of 18th and 19th century two-storey rear extensions, forming an approximately square plan.

On the ground floor, two 18th-century casement windows have splayed bays, altered in the 20th century, and feature dentilled cornices. The first floor has two 18th-century casement windows, each with three lights and rectangular leading, also altered in the 20th century. A six-panel door is set within a panelled reveal and fanlight, leading to a two-storey porch with diagonal buttresses and a crenellated parapet. The outer archway is chamfered in two orders, incorporating attached shafts with moulded bases and capitals, and a moulded label. Segmental arches, also chamfered in two orders, flank the archway on either side. An original window is located above the arch, featuring two round-headed lights with hollow-chamfered jambs and a semi-circular arch; the mullion has been removed and it has been converted into an 18th-century two-light window with one wrought iron casement and rectangular leading. A truncated diagonal pinnacle sits above. The left-hand stack features two diagonal shafts, while the right-hand stack has two octagonal shafts with a recessed panel to the side. The return facades are of brick, with a crow-stepped gable on the left and 18th-century three-light windows with wrought iron casements on the first floor. A modern wrought iron sign displays the date 1583.

Internally, the building exhibits jowled posts with close studding, and an underbuilt jetty at the front. Notable features include richly carved beams in various foliate patterns; the rear side of the axial beam on the right features a spiral-leaf pattern with an unusual branched stem. There are chamfered joists of horizontal section with step stops, and original carved beams above the first floor. In the right first-floor room, one jowl is carved to resemble a cowled head, which has been defaced. The roof is a side-purlin design, only partially visible. The house’s history includes being first recorded in 1567 as Borowes, then as Gadlers in 1612, Brickhouse in 1690, and Cage Farm in 1779, before being named The Abbey around 1795.