Friars Grange Farmhouse

This is a hall house dating back to approximately 1400, with significant alterations in the 16th, 19th, and 20th centuries. The house was originally built as a grange belonging to Tilty Abbey, a Cistercian monastery. It began as a two-bay hall with an integral service area at the west end and a parlour/solar at the east end, likely both originally with lean-to roofs.

Around the mid-16th century, a timber-framed smoke hood was added to the western end of the hall, followed by a floor above. This smoke hood was later replaced with a brick chimney stack, which backed onto the original cross-entry, and then a second chimney stack was built against the first, blocking the cross-entry and creating a lobby entrance. During the late 16th century, the original parlour/solar end was demolished and rebuilt as a two-bay crosswing with an external chimney stack on its east side. A false crosswing was constructed at the west end, enclosing the original service area and extending to the east of it. A single-story dairy with attics was added to the rear of this false crosswing, creating an L-shaped layout. A dormer window was inserted into the north pitch of the hall roof. These alterations were largely complete by or soon after 1600.

A major repair was undertaken at some point, rebuilding the rear wall of the hall approximately 35cm (14 inches) inside its original position, resulting in the cutting off of projecting tiebeam ends. In the 19th century, the front entrance was moved to its current position in the northeast corner of the hall. More recently, in the 20th century, minor, non-structural alterations were made to the north elevation, including the addition of five casement windows and a four-panel door with a bracketed hood on the ground floor, and four casement windows, including one in a gabled dormer, on the first floor. Decorative pargeted designs resembling wheatsheaves appear on each gable.

The house features jowled storey posts, and has both clasped purlin roofs on the crosswings and a south extension, and a crownpost roof on the hall, which retains significant smoke-blackened timbers. The hall roof includes a steeply cranked central tiebeam, a cross-quadrate crownpost with four braces, complete collars halved to rafters and secured with nailhead pegs, and a blocked smoke-vent at the western gable. Original windows with diamond mullions are visible in the west wall of the service room (now within the false crosswing) and the rear wall of the hall. A moulded mantel beam, originally a bowtell (a decorative element of a casement window, repeated and damaged), is found in a ground floor room, along with early 17th-century oak panelling. Four late 17th-century leaded windows with wrought iron casements and some original glass are located in the rear wall and one internal wall on the first floor. The original staircases to both attics are present in the crosswings, with original floorboards. Exposed timber framing is visible in the south extension. Historical records of the building date back to 1444.