Raylands

Raylands is a hall house dating to the late 16th century, with a hall wing floored and remodelled in the 17th century, and extended in 1993-4. The building is timber framed, with plastered and whitewashed external walls, and has plaintile roofs.

The north front features three projecting gabled elements. To the left is a jettied solar wing set at a right angle to the main hall. The windows on this front are largely Crittall casements, with a few dating to the early 1930s. A central gable, added in the 16th century, houses a staircase; it has a two-light casement below a four-light casement. A 20th-century timber porch with a plank door and single-light casements flanks the entrance. A jettied east gable, added in 1993-4, includes a ground-floor timber bay window and a top-hung timber window above. A cruciform ridge stack from the 17th century is located to the left of the centre, and a single-flued stack to the east end. The rear of the house has a south-facing row of windows, two storeys high and with an attic. Two gables flank the main walls, and the fenestration consists of two-, three- and four-light Crittall windows. A wide, hipped patio roof was added in 1993-4.

Inside, a new oak open-string staircase with twisted balusters was inserted in 1993-4, acting as a balustrade to the first-floor corridor landing. The solar wing retains its timber frame, including a reused chamfered bridging beam with run-out stops, a middle rail and an arched brace in the north-west corner. A 17th-century fireplace has been rebuilt with 16th-century brick, and features chamfered jambs and a bressummer. The first floor of the solar is divided into two rooms, each with a crown purlin in the roof supported on arched braces to three crown posts. A room to the west of the hall has a fireplace with 17th-century bricks, chamfered jambs, and a chamfered bressummer with tongue stops. A chamfered spine beam with tongue stops and a bridging beam are also present. A 1993-4 kitchen occupies the space of the former gable. A bedroom above the former hall reveals the exposed timber frame and has a blocked two-light 17th-century ovolo-moulded mullioned timber window. The main east-west roof has common rafters, collars, and clasped purlins dating to the 17th century.