Church Farmhouse And Stables

Church Farmhouse and stables. The farmhouse likely began as an open hall house dating to the 15th and 16th centuries, with a northern section added in the 16th century. In the 18th century, a brick scullery and stable were built on the northeast side. The farmhouse was renovated and given a brick facade to the front, and its southern end shortened in the mid-19th century, likely as part of the Ashridge Estate improvements. The farmhouse is timber-framed, with roughcast on the rear, exposed dark weatherboarding on the north gable, and 18th-century red brick on the stable range and a darker red brick facade on the house itself. It has steep, old red tile roofs.

The farmhouse is a tall, two-story building with a cellar and attic, facing east, and a lower, two-story stable range extending east from its north end. The front of the farmhouse has five windows, with transomed casement windows featuring cambered arches. There's a gabled porch leading to a six-panel flush-beaded door on the south side, and a canted bay window on the south end. The stable range, also five windows long, faces south and has square recesses on the upper floor, creating a hayloft.

The original southern section of the farmhouse comprises two and a half bays, originally extending further south. This was a former open hall with queen-strut and collar trusses on a smoke-blackened roof, featuring clasped-purlins, curved wind-braces, and curved braces supporting the collar from the queen-struts of each truss. Evidence of wattle-and-daub infill remains in a closed truss. Abutting the north side is a slightly later two-bay structure with a clasped-purlin roof, curved wind-braces, and flat rafters. The first floor in the south section is supported by deeply-moulded cross-beams with a double cavetto. A large, oak, Jacobean-style staircase was added in the mid-19th century. A double-height scullery is located at the west end of the stable range.