Yeomans

This is a hall house, dating from the 14th or 15th century, with alterations made in the 16th and 20th centuries and a 20th-century extension. The house is timber-framed and has been plastered, with a thatched roof. It originally comprised two bays of a hall, with a storeyed parlour or solar incorporated at the southwest end and a service area at the northeast end. In the mid-16th century, a timber-framed smoke hood was built in the northeast bay of the hall. Later in the same century, a brick chimney stack was constructed within the smoke hood, facing onto the cross-entry, and a floor was inserted into the southwest bay of the hall. A single-storey extension was added to the southwest around 1970. The house has a plain front door and four 20th-century casement windows, plus one window in a swept dormer. An arch-headed window, introduced from elsewhere around 1938, occupies the position of the original front door. The roof is half-hipped at the southwest end and gabled at the northeast end. Internally, the timber framing is exposed. There are jowled storey posts, a cambered central tiebeam with one arch-brace in place, and a collar-rafter roof; the roof over the hall is heavily smoke-blackened. The floor of the service area has been rebuilt, but evidence of unglazed windows indicates it was originally storeyed. A rare, genuine medieval solid-tread stair is present in the service area, although it was moved from elsewhere around 1938. The timber-framed smoke hood has survived intact, occupying the entire northeast bay of the hall at the first-floor level, a very unusual survival; only one other example in similar condition is known, at Mashams, High Laver, in Essex. The two tiebeams at the northeast end have matrices for notched-lap joints and trenches for passing braces. Measurements suggest that these timbers, dating back to the 13th century, have been reused and shortened, although they remain original to the building.