Three Chimneys

Three Chimneys is a former open hall house of probable 15th-century origin, with 16th and 17th-century alterations and additions. It was subdivided into three cottages in the 19th century and converted back to a single dwelling in the early 20th century. The later northern and southern bays are of lesser architectural interest.

The building is constructed with a cement-rendered timber frame and has a thatched roof with brick chimney stacks. It is one-and-a-half storeys in height, aligned north-north-west to south-south-east with a rectangular plan.

The roof is steeply pitched with deep, overhanging eaves. The principal elevation faces west and features a central projecting porch constructed in the 20th century from salvaged building material, including timber-framed windows of 19th-century and possibly earlier date. On each side of the porch are two-light casements: two on the left-hand side and one on the right. Above are four 19th-century eyebrow dormers, three containing a two-light casement and one wider example on the left with a pair of two-light casements. The left-hand return is gabled with a 19th-century shallow brick stack rising through the apex of the gable, while the right-hand return is half-hipped with a 20th-century gabled porch constructed from reclaimed timber-framed windows. Above and to the right are two-light casements. All windows elsewhere are 20th-century Crittall replacements with shallow timber sills and lintels.

The rear elevation features, from left to right, a pair of two-light casements and a three-light casement, followed by an area of exposed brickwork surviving from the late-16th or early-17th-century stack. A timber post dividing the brickwork into two equal sections indicates the fireplace was probably back-to-back and framed. A 19th-century window above the right-hand section suggests the northern fireplace was removed when a staircase was inserted in the 19th century to facilitate conversion to three cottages. To the right are a late-19th or early-20th-century three-light casement, a 20th-century half-glazed door and a 20th-century three-light casement. A 20th-century lean-to spans the width of the rear elevation.

Internally, the building is divided into six unequal bays. The four central bays display a substantially intact close-studded timber frame of late-medieval date, including the sill beam, braces and jowled and chamfered wall posts at ground-floor level. At the centre is the former open hall, divided into two bays of unequal length by an arch-braced truss springing from chamfered wall posts. The larger southern bay, probably the high end, is spanned by a late-16th or early-17th-century ceiling with a stop-chamfered spine beam and ceiling joists raked at the same angle as the cambered tie beam. The north-east wall retains an original window opening with a lintel bearing diamond-shaped mortices for the mullions (now lost), and peg holes in the sill indicating the former shutter rail position.

Immediately north of the truss is a late-16th or early-17th-century inglenook fireplace with contemporary smoke hood and a chamfered timber bressumer. The hearth is now lined with late-20th-century brick. The spine beam to the smaller northern bay and numerous floor joists were removed, along with the northern half of the back-to-back fireplace, when a straight-flight staircase was inserted in the 19th century. Adjoining the south side of the hall is the former solar with a raised ceiling, probably contemporary with the late-16th or early-17th-century hall ceiling. The southernmost bay has plastered walls and late-20th-century floor joists. At the northern side, the former service bay walls are largely plastered, with the sill beam and jowled wall posts still evident, though the north wall appears to have been rebuilt in the late 19th century when the northernmost bay was also rebuilt. This latter bay retains a chamfered spine beam from this period with 20th-century built-in cupboards and shelving.

The upper storey displays the uppermost section of the close-studded frame, a substantial wall plate and wall post upstands across the four central bays. Some upstands are spanned by large longitudinal timbers probably added later for strengthening. The only visible tie beams are those of the arch-braced truss in the former open hall and that between the hall and former solar, though others may be hidden by 19th-century additions. A plastered ceiling conceals the collar and probable purlins to the largely common rafter roof. The rafters appear largely original with some 19th-century replacements, particularly where dormers have been inserted. The later bays have 19th-century rafters. All bays are divided by 19th-century stud walls with plaster infill. As most timbers were painted in the 19th century, there is apparently no surviving evidence of smoke-blackening.

The central projecting porch, the 20th-century gabled porch and the 20th-century lean-to spanning the rear elevation are declared not to be of special architectural or historic interest.