Waterbridge

Waterbridge is a house that dates back to the 16th century or earlier, originally an open hall house, with a late 16th-century inserted floor and a 17th-century central chimney. It was restored in the early 20th century, likely by the architects Forsyth & Maule. The building features a timber frame resting on a red brick sill, with roughcast infill between exposed close-studding and some red brick infill on the ground floor to the right of the door. The steep roofs are covered with old red tiles.

The house has a classic open hall design facing north, with a two-storey jettied crosswing on the west. It consists of a three-bay hall range, with an eastern room that is partitioned off, and long cranked braces supporting the cranked tie-beam of the open truss in the hall. There is a five-light diamond mullioned window in the rear wall of the hall. The upper floor of the two-bay crosswing is divided at the middle truss, although the layout of the ground floor is less clear.

Inside, deeply chamfered axial beams and a cross beam in the hall suggest that a smoke-hood existed before the current 17th-century chimney was added, which converted the house to a lobby entry plan. Back-to-back fireplaces provide heat to the narrow eastern room and the hall. The joists are chamfered and stopped, with the end room having axial beams while the hall is supported by axial beams.

The northern front of the house features five small casement flush windows and a renewed gabled open timber porch with a carved date of '1518'. The projecting wing to the right has heavy corner brackets supporting the jetty, and there is a tall L-shaped red brick central chimney. A later external chimney on the west side of the crosswing serves the front half of the house. Small timber-framed tiled projections were added to the west and south around 1920, in keeping with the original style.

The eastern end has a moulded and panelled oak door beneath an open gabled porch. Inside, the house displays cranked tension braces that are trenched through the inner face of the close-studding in both the main range and the wing. The roofs are clasped purlin types with queen struts and collar trusses, and there are chamfered and hogged lintels over the open fireplaces. The timber frame is exposed both inside and outside, making Waterbridge a particularly interesting example of a complete late medieval house.